The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

The Shanghai Gesture (1941) (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Oscar Academy Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Posters
Scene Access
Booklet
Remastered

Movie filmed in 1941 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Josef von Sternberg

Written By:
John Colton
Josef von Sternberg

Actors:
Gene Tierney ..... Victoria Charteris
Walter Huston ..... Sir Guy Charteris
Victor Mature ..... Doctor Omar
Ona Munson ..... 'Mother' Gin Sling
Phyllis Brooks ..... Dixie Pomeroy
Albert Bassermann ..... Van Elst
Maria Ouspenskaya ..... The Amah
Eric Blore ..... Caesar Hawkins
Ivan Lebedeff ..... Boris
Mike Mazurki ..... The Coolie
Clyde Fillmore ..... Percival Montgomery Hower
Grayce Hampton ..... Lady Blessington
Rex Evans ..... Mr. Jackson
Mikhail Rasumny ..... Mischa Vaginisky (as Mikhail Rasumni)
Michael Dalmatoff ..... The Bartender (as Michael Delmatoff)

Synopsis:

Josef von Sternberg made his first return to exotic Shanghai since 1932's Shanghai Express in this baroque conflagration, based on a 1925 play by John Colton that required 30 revisions before it was sufficiently sanitized to pass muster with Hays Office censors. The film takes place in the gambling den of Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), who finds her casino threatened with closing by stuffed shirt English financier Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston). Gin Sling knows that the key to keeping her casino open is to dig up some dirt on Sir Guy, and it's quick in coming. She finds that Sir Guy was compelled to leave China in a hurry some time in the past, stealing his wife's money and plotting to kill her. Sir Guy ended up abandoning his wife in China and leaving her with an infant daughter. She also finds out that Sir Guy's grown-up daughter, Poppy (Gene Tierney, is a frequent and deeply indebted guest of Gin Sling's casino. Gin Sling is now ready to blackmail Sir Guy into keeping her casino open. He tracks down his daughter and tries to convince her to leave town. But Poppy refuses to budge, having fallen in love with Doctor Omar (Victor Mature).

Mother's Gin Sling is a casino in Shanghai where all the best and worst personalities come to drink and gamble and its proprietor Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson) is a tough and astute business woman who laughs and jokes with even the leaders of the community. When she is told that she is being evicted by an English businessman Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston) Gin Sling immediately digs up all the dirt she can find on the man. When one of her minions Dr. Omar (Victor Mature) takes up with a new visitor Poppy Charteris (Gene Tierney) to the gambling joint things are good- she loses more money each night even though she is advanced thousands from the bank to keep her coming back, but Dr. Omar convinces her to hock off all of her jewelry. Poppy is the daughter of Charteris and is addicted to more than gambling, so much so that Charteris sends her away before he accepts a dinner invitation from Gin Sling for Chinese New Year. At Gin Sling's party in the presence of many other high-level leaders of the city Gin Sling lets out some information that insures her fate on many levels.

A young woman, Poppy, out for excitement in Shanghai, enters a gambling house owned by 'Mother' Gin Sling, a dragon-lady who worked herself up from poverty to buy the casino. Sir Guy Charteris, wealthy entrepreneur, has purchased a large area of Shanghai, forcing Gin Sling to vacate by the coming Chinese New Year. Under orders from Gin Sling, who has found out Poppy is Charteris' daughter, the smarmy Doctor Omar leads Poppy deeper and deeper into an addiction to gambling and alcohol. Gin Sling, realizing that Charteris was her long-ago husband who she thinks abandoned her, plans her revenge by inviting Charteris to a Chinese New Year dinner party to expose his past indiscretions. Charteris, however, has a suprise of his own to spring on Gin Sling.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 13 December, 2019.

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