À l'ouest de Shanghai

Boris Karloff is a renegade Chinese warlord, with his mind set on military success and sex. Ricardo Cortez begins the film as the "romantic lead", but Karloff's character ends up being the more sympathetic of the two. This is a B movie that knows it, and it pretty much succeeds in everything it does attempt. Interesting parallel towards the end between Gordon Oliver's barely-missed execution and Karloff's more final one. Karloff's makeup does not convince, but his performance does; he brings humor and strength to the character.

Have seen this film on Turner for the first time....Karloff and a delightful script marks my contention that Mr. Karloff is an underrated actor...he is whimsical as well as threatening as the officious Chinese General and has prompted me to search and buy this wonderful film. Oh,such a sad season of the Politically-correct..they'd never let Dear Boris film this today and more is the pity! The rest of the cast is pedestrian,but "Dear Boris" is worth the price of admission! His noble ending is worth the wait,but delight in his early exchange with his captors..I have a feeling that Mr. Karloff had a fun time in some of this making of the film.

This somewhat obscure film is helped by a quick running time and the presence of Karloff. On the downside it is overly talky and the few battle scenes it has are generic.

The script is decent though, and my interest in the film was undoubtedly bolstered a bit because I find contemporary Chinese history to be intriguing (not that this is a textbook reproduction of the period. :)

6/10. I wouldn't recommended it, but at the same time I feel it is above average with everything considered.

Attention All Fans Of Boris Karloff: if you have not yet watched this delightful Boris performance, you are missing a real treat! Sporting an effective Asian makeup, Karloff portrays robber General Wu Yen Fang, a dangerous tyrant in northern China with an endearing sense of humor. Fang seizes command and holds several visiting Americans prisoners, and it's a real pleasure watching the colorful general toying with them. Among the cast members is Ricardo Cortez, but the one to watch and who steals the show is Karloff himself. I would easily rank this role among his best ever; he played Asian parts a few times in his career, but this is the only time he's ever sold me completely on such a character, speaking in broken English and managing to disguise most of his own British accent here. Some of the most humorous scenes involve Fang's charming communication through his always-present trusty interpreter, trying to understand and shoot back some common Americanisms. In no time, Karloff makes us actually like and feel for this murderous criminal. At the time this movie was made, the production of the usual horror movies which Boris Karloff was so well known for were temporarily halted. I think that WEST OF SHANGHAI proves beyond a shadow of any doubt that Boris had no problem holding his own in non-scary character parts and would have gone on to succeed in other dramatic roles, had the ban on horror movies not ultimately been lifted. *** out of ****

Excellent movie directed by John Farrow,(Mia Farrow's father) and involves American promoters Myron Galt(Douglas Wood) and Gordon Creed(Ricardo Cortez) who arrive in a village where bandit's are infested throughout the country side of northern China. They plan to foreclose on a valuable oil concession owned by Jim Hallet(Gordon Oliver). However, Creed finds his estranged wife, Jane (Beverly Roberts), a medical missionary, is falling in love with Hallet. He will not give her a divorce, in the meantime an army of bandits looking for money and possessions are lead by their renegade general,Wu Yen Fang(Boris Karloff), he takes over the entire city and uses the Christian Mission as a headquarters. Americans and missionaries find themselves prisoners of Boris Karloff and he does a good job of terrorizing them. West of Shanghai in 1923 was a silent film and also a talkie version in 1930. Walter Houston repeated the role of the Mexican bandit. This is a very slow B movie. Karloff is starred, and does the best that he can to portray a Chinese bandit using the methods of American racketeers. Boris Karloff's acting and makeup is great which made this picture into a classic.