Shanghai Express
“Many Men Had Loved Her -- but only one had been loved in return!”
1932 · 1 h 22 min
Josef von SternbergCast
Marlene Dietrich 
Clive Brook 
Anna May Wong
Credits
Written by: 
Jules Furthman
Plot
On a train through civil-war China, a notorious courtesan meets her former lover, a British army doctor, as the train is seized by a warlord.
Sinekatalog’s take
Josef von Sternberg's train drama gives Marlene Dietrich her iconic 'It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.' Glamorous, stylised and exotic, it is a visual treat of 1930s Hollywood.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.3 / 10 (11,997 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
If you liked this
Picked by director, genre, era and shared cast. Titles only, no spoilers.
- The Docks of New York 1928 · Josef von Sternberg · IMDb 7.5 · Same director
- Empire of the Sun 1987 · Steven Spielberg · IMDb 7.7 · Viewers also liked
- Blonde Venus 1932 · Josef von Sternberg · IMDb 7.1 · Same director
- Passage to Marseille 1944 · Michael Curtiz · IMDb 6.8 · Viewers also liked
- The White Countess 2005 · James Ivory · IMDb 6.5 · Viewers also liked
- 55 Days at Peking 1963 · Nicholas Ray · IMDb 6.7 · Viewers also liked