Terrore a Shanghai

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.

That's fine as far as it goes but the other element that makes the film enjoyable is the competence of the main players. Edmond O'Brien is impassioned as the doctor who becomes the focal point of the story with Whit Bissell and a very young Richard Jaeckel adding fine support as two fellow prisoners. Also standing out and looking very beautiful is Ruth Roman. Never given her due she was a fierce screen presence elevating the often middling material she was handed as she does here.

Nothing special but if you like this type of adventure/war picture an agreeable time passer.

This is not at all a bad film. It is interesting and fascinating, and still it has never had any great attention. The communists have taken over China, and some 50 Americans find themselves trapped in Shanghai and taken as hostages by the communists. They are interned in a hotel and forbidden to leave it, and anyone who tries will get shot down, because the communists believe there is a spy among them. One actually has a radio communication with the world outside, and he must get out of there to deliver an urgent message to the Americans in Tokyo, and Edmond O'Brien, who is a doctor, tries to help him. It is a beautiful film with lovely music, and Ruth Roman plays an important part as a kind of diplomatic link between the prisoners and the communists. It is not easy to follow all the turns of this twisted political dilemma, but the environment and circumstances are genuine. There is nothing wrong with it although complex and tricky.

The communists have taken over Shanghai. The city's luxury hotels have become internment camps for some of the few remaining foreigners. Dr. Dan Maynard (Edmond O'Brien) is world-weary from his time in China. Rita King (Ruth Roman) seems to have more freedom than the rest. Major Ling Wu (Philip Ahn) commands the guards and searches for an enemy agent among the group.

It's a Red Scare movie. I like the general opening premise. It does lean more on the concentration camp model of story. The movie is a bit stuck in that mode. Who's to say that there is a spy or not a spy or only one spy. I'm not invested in finding out. The movie is dreary and I don't care that much about it anyways.

Several Americans living in China are held captive in a hotel until the Chinese military finds out which of them is a spy. Hardly an original plot, but there is some good suspense. The leads have absolutely NO CHEMISTRY. I basically watched this to see Ruth Roman. Her part is good, but she doesn't play the downtrodden gutsy dames that made us love her. O'Brien is his typical crabby self. The supporting characters are relegated to speaking extras.

It is worth a watch, but don't go in with high expectations.

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.