The Shanghai Story

I just watched The Shanghai Story and could not tell if it should be labeled a spy thriller! It is in a way, but not really.

Less than ten years after the end of World War II, Tokyo becomes the good guy and Shanghai the villain in this cold war drama which has more than just a few similarities with "Grand Hotel". All the archetypes of that classic play and movie are there, including a pompous businessman who falsely believes his double dealing with the Chinese will get him freed and a frail older man who may be dying.

When the story begins, China has just fallen to the Communists in 1949. Oddly, although you would THINK all foreign nationals in China would be scared and on their best behaviors so as to not upset the new regime, the westerners in this film are all angry and stupid.

Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates.

Run of the mill prisoner of war film is elevated by the snappiness of the direction from Frank Lloyd, director of the first Mutiny on the Bounty with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, and the cast.Set mostly amongst a group of enemy aliens confined to a hotel in the title city Lloyd keeps the viewer engaged by having the action move repeatedly from room to room with occasional scenes elsewhere.