The Shanghai Gesture *** (1941, Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson) – Classic Movie Review 8924

Director Josef von Sternberg’s stylish directorial flourishes are much in evidence in his exotic 1941 black and white film noir-style crime drama The Shanghai Gesture, a tastefully cleaned-up version of John Colson’s once shocking play, apparently around the 32nd attempt to bring it to the screen.

The producer Arnold Pressburger and adaptation writer Josef von Sternberg have turned the original whorehouse setting into a huge gambling house, Boris Leven’s gorgeously designed movie set that is one of the film’s main delights, along with the also Oscar nominated score by Richard Hageman.

Ona Munson plays the den of iniquity owner, Madame Gin Sling, who has an Arab lover, Doctor Omar (Victor Mature), and rubs her land developer ex-husband Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston)’s nose in their daughter Poppy (Gene Tierney)’s degradation through gambling and alcohol in the Shanghai gambling house. Charteris intends to put Gin Sling out of business by the upcoming Chinese New Year, while she plans to invite him to a New Year dinner party to expose his indiscretions, meanwhile getting  Doctor Omar to take Poppy deeper and deeper into addiction.

A sly dark sense of humour would have helped the writers, but this is still a fascinating, undervalued film worth watching for Munson, Mature, Huston and Tierney, as well as the classy support cast, plus the famous von Sternberg style.

Also in the cast are Albert Bassermann, Phyllis Brooks, Maria Ouspenskaya, Eric Blore, Mike Mazurki, Ivan Lebedeff, Clyde Fillmore, Rex Evans, Marcel Dalio, John Abbott, Leyland Hodgson, Grayce Hampton, Mikhail Rasumny, and Michael Dalmatoff.

The Shanghai Gesture is directed by Josef von Sternberg, runs 99 minutes, is made by Arnold Pressburger Films, is released by United Artists, is written by Josef von Sternberg (adaptation), Geza Herczeg (collaborator for adaptation), Karl Vollmöller (collaborator for adaptation) and Jules Furthman (collaborator for adaptation), based on John Colson’s play, is shot in black and white by Paul Ivano, is produced by Arnold Pressburger (producer) and Albert de Courville (associate producer), is scored by Richard Hageman and is designed by Boris Leven.

The copyright length is 99 minutes and the 1981 restored version runs 98 minutes.

It was shot between August and October 1941 at the Hal Roach Studios, 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, and Chinatown, Los Angeles, (for the Chinese New Year’s Eve sequence).

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White (Boris Leven) and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Richard Hageman).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8924

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