Shanghai Express (1932)
Directed by Josef von Sternberg · Cinematography by Lee Garmes
Approved82 min57 frames
DramaRomanceWarCrime
Many Men Had Loved Her -- but only one had been loved in return!
Stills, screencaps & shots from Shanghai Express
16 of 57 frames — the full set is searchable by lighting, lens, shot size, color and mood with a free account.
Shanghai Express — official trailer
What is Shanghai Express about?
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Shanghai Express is a 1932 American pre-Code film about a group of train passengers held hostage by a warlord during the Chinese Civil War. It was directed by Josef von Sternberg and stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong and Warner Oland. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman based on a 1931 short story by Harry Hervey. Shanghai Express was the fourth of seven films that Sternberg and Dietrich created together.
Second paragraph from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where can you watch Shanghai Express?
US availability for Shanghai Express (1932). Data by JustWatch, listings on TMDB. Availability changes — check the provider for current listings.
Who stars in Shanghai Express?
Who made Shanghai Express?
What does the cinematography of Shanghai Express look like?
Across 56 sampled frames, Shanghai Express builds its coverage from medium shots (45% of the sample), with close-ups (38%) carrying much of the rest. Cinematographer Lee Garmes keeps 66% of it in soft, low-key light. 64% of the frames play at night or in the failing light of dusk. Vintage glass shapes the frame. Focus stays shallow in 59% of the frames, isolating subjects from their surroundings. The production design places the film in the 1930s.
What is the color palette of Shanghai Express?
The dominant colors across the sampled frames of Shanghai Express (1932) are #040404, #313131, #909090, #6c6c6c, #cdcdcd, #4b4b4b — measured from the per-frame color data FrameThrower extracts for every film.
#040404#313131#909090#6c6c6c#cdcdcd#4b4b4b
See the full Shanghai Express colour palette — every hex with its share, plus warmth, saturation and luminance.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 57 frames of Shanghai Express (1932), and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.
Techniques in this film
More films by Josef von Sternberg
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