Cinematheque: Josef von Sternberg

Among the passengers on a train headed to Shanghai are a British Army Captain (Brook) and his former lover, fallen woman Shanghai Lily (Dietrich). The two attempt to rekindle their romance while fighting off revolutionaries led by a powerful warlord (Warner Oland). Bursting with delirious Oriental imagery, this is also perhaps the most briskly-paced of the Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations, thanks partly to the witty crackerjack script by Jules Furthman (and an uncredited Howard Hawks!).