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Josef von Sternberg, Paramount, 1932. Marlene Dietrich is Shanghai Lily, riding the Peking-Shanghai train with a wartime mix of passengers; Clive Brook is the officer who knew her when she had another name. Anna May Wong is Hui Fei, who shares the compartment and the trouble when a warlord (Warner Oland) stops the train. Lee Garmes’s smoke and slats won an Oscar. Wong’s part is the one the plot actually needs in the last reels. Eighty-two minutes. Dietrich is the poster. The express is a corridor of people who have already chosen sides.
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The Hollywood ceiling. Hui Fei shares the compartment, does the thing the plot needs in the last reels, and is photographed by Garmes like the star she is not billed as. Dietrich is the poster. Watch the two women together: the film's only honest relationship.
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