Shadows Over Shanghai

Just a note the goof is not right about 'Johnny phone' is wrong he picks up middle phone and leaves from the middle phone the mistake is that the Chinese gentleman is using the right phone but standing in middle

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?

If you just want to relax and not be challenged by a movie, but not be bored either, this one is for you. Cheaply made and a little slow at times, it nonetheless is quite entertaining. James Dunn and Ralph Morgan are performers who hold your attention. Linda Gray is leaden as an actress, but she is gorgeous in an offbeat way. Robert Barat is good as usual. The plot is entertaining enough, although the mcguffin is not necessarily worth all the to-do.

This was released in 1938. A scene of a city being bombed while our heros try to escape seems lifted from some other movie. It was probably pasted in to give this movie some excitement. However, it also reflected the anxiety people felt in those days about aerial bombardment. As Ralph Morgan says "This is what the next war will look like." And it did.

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!

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.