Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

"The Shanghai Gesture" was made in 1941 but is set in 1920s or early 1930s, before Shanghai it came under Japanese occupation in 1937 and at a time when the city had a large European and American expatriate community and. At the centre of the story is a casino owned by a Chinese woman named "Mother Gin Sling". I have never read or seen the play on which the film is based, but I gather that in the original the character was called "Mother Goddamn" and that her establishment was a brothel rather than a casino. There was no way in 1941 that the film-makers could have got that past the Breen Office. Broadway was evidently more liberal than Hollywood about such matters. The plot revolves around four main characters. These are Mother Gin Sling herself, "Poppy Smith", a beautiful, privileged young woman whose real name is either Victoria Charteris or Victoria Dawson, Victoria's father Sir Guy Charteris aka Victor Dawson (he uses both names and it is unclear which one is real) and Victoria's mysterious lover Doctor Omar. I won't set out the plot in full, as it is rather complicated and in some places does not make a great deal of sense, but the salient features are a plan by Charteris/Dawson to redevelop a large area of Shanghai, a threat to relocate Gin Sling's gambling den from the European settlement to the less lucrative Chinese sector and some surprising revelations about Poppy/Victoria's real parentage. The film is sometimes described as "film noir", but it has little to do with the classic American noirs of this period. Despite its near-contemporary setting it has more the feel of being set in some weird Orientalist fantasy of China, a land whose fiendishly inscrutable inhabitants are barely recognisable as members of the human race and who talk in a bizarre pidgin ("You likee Chinese New Year?") which bears no resemblance to the way real Chinese people speak English. This is so even though the main Chinese characters are played by white actors in "yellowface". In the case of Mother Gin Sling this was presumably done to keep the censors happy. We learn that Gin Sling was at one time married to a European, and although the Production Code officially forbade depictions of "miscegenation", there was an unwritten rule that romances between white men and Asian or Native American (but not black) women were acceptable provided that the lady in question was played by a Caucasian actress. (Gin Sling is played by Ona Munson). There was, however, no equivalent rule permitting romances between white women and Asian men; in the original play Poppy/Victoria's lover was Japanese, but for the screen he became the half-French half-Middle Eastern Doctor Omar, played by Victor Mature. The film was positively received by some reviewers at the time, and even received two Oscar nominations, for "Best Art Direction" and "Best Original Music Score", but I find it difficult to understand why. The acting is not of a particularly high standard. Gene Tierney as Poppy/Victoria is as beautiful as ever, but this is far from being her finest hour. Mature is wooden (as he often could be) and although the script suggests that Mother Gin Sling is a woman of strong passions Munson gives little hint of this in a largely emotionless performance. I am not sure whether Munson remained emotionless in a deliberate attempt to suggest her character's fiendishly inscrutable nature or whether this was because her thick make-up, looking as though it had been applied with a trowel, made it impossible for her to convey any feelings. One reviewer described the film as "a delirious masterpiece of decadence and sexual depravity that surrounds itself with Eastern motifs that are meant to mystify rather than enlighten". Apart from "masterpiece" I could adopt every single word of that quotation, but I would mean it as criticism rather than praise. Films which aim at mystification rather than enlightenment need very capable handling if they are not to descend into incomprehensible nonsense or inadvertent comedy, and I am afraid that director Josef von Sternberg (in his last completed Hollywood film) never comes close to pulling off that particular trick. "The Shanghai Gesture" may be delirious, decadent and depraved. A masterpiece it is not. 4/10

What a stellar cast and what a great director...and all gone to waste on this uneven drama of evil and revenge set in Shanghai. The only actress that truly bears mentioning is Ona Munson as "Mother" Gin Sling!!! She was flawless in her performance as was her make-up, figure and wardrobe in this production. Although Josef von Sternberg directed this disaster, Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Walter Huston, Eric Blore, Albert Bassermann and Maria Ouspenskaya are completely miscast in their roles. The story and plot never gel due to the misdirected and uneven performances of the principal players. Ouspenskaya, as the Amah, never utters a word in this film. Although she is at her loveliest, Tierney doesn't quite get across as the spoiled, rich young woman and odd leading lady of the film. Walter Huston does a fairly good job of portraying her wealthy father but, once again, the drama is so uneven that it never quite comes off. Victor Mature, also very handsome, plays the "Fezzed" Doctor Omar. The great character actor Albert Bassermann looks wonderful and never fumbles but nothing can save this piece of work...but it is Ona Munson who steals the show from all of them and is well directed by the mysteriously confounded von Sternberg.

Josef von Sternberg ( in truth just plain Joe Sternberg, which speaks volumes about the man) was a director who went for style over substance in all of his movies. In this case it's all style and barely any substance. You're expected to be so engrossed with all the exotic characters he has assembled and the sheer decadence of an oriental gambling den to overlook the fact that there is hardly any storyline to hang on to. The only direction he seems to have given to his actors is "Look outlandish and say your lines as if they were pure poetry". Victor Mature just hangs around the casino looking handsome, as does Gene Tierney, never a great actress but in this case it's not entirely her fault. Some witty dialog could have helped, but the script is downright dull and predictable. The camera-work is indifferent and consists mostly of sweeping shots of gambling tables and people sitting at the bar. What there is of story and intrigue is packed into the last ten minutes of the movie but by that time no revelation however shocking could have turned this into even a halfway decent movie. A visit to your local Chinese takeaway is a true exotic adventure compared to this half-baked chop suey of a movie.

"The Shanghai Gesture" (1941), an early audition to the film noir genre (made in the same year as "The Maltese Falcon") and directed by the great Josef von Sternberg, based on the play of the same name by John Colton and starring the luminous Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Victor Mature.The plot follows Mother Gin Sling's (Ona Munson) casino in Shanghai and the various exploits of the people in it, like Poppy Smith (Tierney) and her infatuation with the Arab Doctor Omar (Mature) and Gin Sling trying to stop the Shanghai authorities from shutting down the place.This has obviously been heavily cut (the title is never properly explained) by the censors over at the Hays office and that is hardly surprising: in the original play, the gambling house was a brothel, Gene Tierney's character was addicted to drugs (only her name gives any indication of that), and the Mother Gin Sling was called Mother Goddam. Several parts of the film simply just do not make coherent sense and von Sternberg, as has been noted by film critic Tony Rayns, seems to be more interested in the luxurious set of the casino and trying to make Tierney look as beautiful as possible with the aid of his marvellous cinematographer Paul Ivano anyway rather than tell a exciting good story. The actors, under the circumstances perform remarkably well: Victor Mature playing an Arab is as preposterous as John Wayne as Genghis Kahn, but it works, unbelievably though it may seem and gives the best performance of the motion picture. The young Gene Tierney, while not at the height of her acting prowess yet, is still vivid and Walter Huston, likewise not in his finest surrounds gives a solid piece of acting and a host of well know faces pop up through at the movie: Maria Ouspenskaya, Eric Blore and Mike Mazurki all make appearances. An over blown delight like "Duel in the Sun" (1946, which von Sternberg also had an un-credited hand in) that is so fun despite or because of its flaws; it is truly one of a kind.