Shadows Over Shanghai

A pilot Peter Roma (Edward Woods) is carrying a valuable amulet and in the process is shot down in a dog fight over China, by a ruthless ex-Russian agent, Igor Sargoza (Robert Barrat with a beard), who also wants the amulet for his own nefarious purpose.

Peter Roma is out of action, so he hands the baton... oops, amulet to his sister Irene Roma (Lynda Grey), to completer the mission. The balance of the movie is the trials and tribulations she must go through along with her uninvited friend Johnny McGinty (James Dunn.) At one point during a marriage ceremony, they leave out "obey" and make a point of it being a modern marriage. I had to put my hands over my wife's ears and point in another direction.

In the process we get some stock ware footage. And a few miniatures tossed in. How will this all end or will it?

"Shadows Over Shanghai" is a very strange film, as its plot and timing is quite odd. It's set during the Japanese invasion of China and takes a somewhat neutral stance on this aggressive and morally bankrupt war.

The film begins with a Irene Roma (Lynda Grey) waiting for her brother to fly home to the school she runs in China. However, at the last minute, another plane flies by and shoots him down--right in front of the horrified Irene! Fortunately, the brother is not dead and he entrusts a necklace to her--making her promise to get it to San Francisco. She runs from the school and drives to town on her mission--pursued by the evil Saragoza (Robert Barrat). She soon meets up with a nice-guy reporter, Johnny (James Dunn) and he and a new friend (Ralph Morgan*) help Irene escape from not just Sargoza but Japanese agents as well.

This is a very strange film. It appears as if the writers WANTED to do a film that condemned the Japanese for their bloody attacks on China. But, they hedged their bets and never quite took a strong stand--mostly because the US was officially neutral and because, sadly, Americans generally didn't care about what was happening in Asia. Regardless, it's entertaining and worth seeing--even if the end is a bit dissatisfying.

*Ralph was never nearly as famous as his brother, Frank (the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz"). I never understood this, as Ralph was a really fine actor and deserves to be remembered. And, interestingly, he really does look an awful lot like Frank, though his acting seemed less bombastic and much more subtle.

This is a preview of the second world war, made the year before it started. The characters even point it out, that this is what you have to expect of the coming war, and it sure is coming. The war scenes, although having nothing to do with the intrigue, are devastating in their impact. James Dunn and Ralph Morgan make a perfect complimentary pair: Dunn as hilarious as any comic, and Morgan unfathomable in his sinister objectivity: you can't guess what he really is up to and what he knows and on which side he is on. To this comes Linda Grey as the perfect innocent damsel in distress who has to be helped at any cost, which both the protagonists are more than eager to do, and at least she gets off well, leaving her dying brother behind in a troublesome fate that never gets explained. The villain is typical of the 30s: he is all evil and can't be anything else. James Dunn's humour and good spirits saves the film, which is good entertainment indeed, and the Americans should have known something of what to expect of the Japanese three years before Pearl Harbour, which they of course didn't.

This must have been a good 'B' picture back in the day, and might have challenged the main feature as far as entertainment value is concerned. It held my interest throughout and got off the screen in a neat 65 minutes. It was produced by Grand National Pictures, a short-lived arm of Warner Bros.Studios in the 30's.

"Shadows Over Shanghai" stars James Dunne, whose best was yet to come in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" (1944), and who was in the midst of a career crisis due to alcohol problems. Hence, a starring role in an obscure new studio. The film is built around him, a good-natured Irish reporter with a magnetic personality. He latches on to a girl who is in over her head in top-secret espionage between China, Russia and the US. There are equal measures of suspense, humor and escapism and enough excitement to go around (but which did not impress my colleagues above).

This picture is worth your time and is better than many films rated higher. There is good acting support from Ralph Morgan (not the Wizard - his brother) and from Robert Barrat in a villainous role. Also, WWII movie fans will recognize Richard Loo, who played Japanese bad guys in scores of war pictures. Talk about movie villains!

Irene, a woman living in China watches as her brother is shot down by an unknown airman. The brother survives but is too weak to continue with his mission which involves taking part of an amulet to San Fransisco to get money for the Chinese war effort against the Japanese. She is warned about the man who shot the brother, a Soviet military man who wants the money for his own. She is also told to look up a certain person in Shanghai if she gets into trouble. Once in Shanghai she runs a fowl of of the villain and escapes thanks to a wounded newspaper photographer, named McGinty, heading home to America. Linking up with her brothers friend the trio tries to get out of the city before the Japanese completely over run it and before the bad guys get them.

Considerably duller than the description makes out (I forgot the villains name and Ralph Morgans as well and I'm not impressed enough to look it up). This is a low budget film that takes into account the then current event of the Japanese Invasion of Shanghai. Despite the use of stock news footage this is a mostly stage bound espionage yarn that substitutes talk for action. Yes its well written, but it lacks any real action until the final reel or two to keep it interesting. The lack of action becomes numbing and I did have to fight to keep awake.

This isn't to say its a bad film, its not,its just a bit too talky for its own good. Lets face it you have to give the film points since the film kept me watching to the end because I had to see how it came out.

Would I recommend it? Well I wouldn't go out of my way to see it but if I found it on I would let it run out its running time. There are worse films and there are better, but in a pinch, on the Late Late Late Movie it would be fine.