''The Shanghai Drama'' () is a 1938 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

G. W. Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

and starring

Christl Mardayn Anna Christina Maria "Christl" Mardayn (8 December 1896 in Vienna – 24 July 1971) was an Austrian actress and singer. Life Anna Christina Maria Mardayn was the daughter of banker Oskar Maria Mardayn and his wife Henriette (). After graduation s ...

Louis Jouvet Jules Eugène Louis Jouvet (; 24 December 1887 – 16 August 1951) was a French actor, theatre director and filmmaker. Early life Jouvet was born in Crozon. He had a Stuttering, stutter as a young man and originally trained as a pharmac ...

and

Raymond Rouleau Raymond Rouleau (; 4 June 1904 – 11 December 1981) was a Belgian actor and film director. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1928 and 1979. He also directed 22 films between 1932 and 1981. Rouleau studied at the Royal Conservatory o ...

.Kennedy-Karpat p.132-33 An exiled White Russian woman works as a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

singer in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

to support her daughter through school. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Andrej Andrejew Andrej is the form of the given name Andrew used in Slovak, Croatian and Slovene. Notable individuals with the given name Andrej *Andrej Babiš (born 1954), Czech politician *Andrej Bajuk (1943–2011), Slovene politician and economist *Andrej ...

and

Guy de Gastyne Guy de Gastyne (; 10 May 1888 – 3 February 1972) was a French art director. In his youth, he was a footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Racing Club de France and for the French national team in the 1911 UIAFA European Football Tournament a ...

. It was shot at the

Joinville Studios The Joinville Studios were a film studio in Paris which operated between 1910 and 1987. They were one of the leading French studios, with major companies such as Pathé and Gaumont Film Company, Gaumont making films there. A second studio was a ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and on location in

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initial ...

Cast

as Franchon *

as Ivan *

as Kay Murphy, cabaret singer *

Elina Labourdette Élina Labourdette (born Élina Janine Alice Henri-Labourdette, 21 May 1919 – 30 September 2014) was a French actress. Her career consisted mostly of flirtatious roles on stage and screen. She is best known for her performances in Robert ...

as Nana, the nurse * Valéry Inkijinoff as Black Dragon Agent * Dorville as Bill, cabaret owner *

André Alerme André Alerme (9 September 1877 – 31 January 1960) was a French actor. Alerme was born Marie André Alerme in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France and died at the age of 82 in Montrichard, Loir-et-Cher, France. Selected filmography * ''Black and Wh ...

as Mac Tavish *

Suzanne Desprès Suzanne Desprès (16 December 1875 – 1 July 1951), born Joséphine-Charlotte Bonvalet, was a French actress on stage and screen. Along with Sarah Bernhardt, she was one of the French actresses who played Hamlet before World War I. Early lif ...

as Vera *

Gabrielle Dorziat Gabrielle Dorziat (25 January 1880 – 30 November 1979) was a French stage and film actress. Dorziat was a fashion trend setter in Paris and helped popularize the designs of Coco Chanel. The Théâtre Gabrielle-Dorziat in Épernay, France is nam ...

as Superintendent of school * Marcel Lupovici as Assassin for Black Dragon * Robert Manuel as Le client attaqué * PierreasLouis as Un marin américain * LinhasNam as Cheng *

Foun-Sen Foun-Sen (28 February 1915 – 5 February 1989) was a French-Vietnamese film actress. She was married to the film director Léo Joannon.Keith p.125 Selected filmography * '' Port Arthur'' (1936) * ''Samson'' (1936) * ''Wolves Between Them'' 193 ...

as Wife of Black Dragon Agent *

Mila Parély Mila Parély (7 October 1917 – 14 January 2012), born Olga Colette Peszynski, was a French actress of Polish ancestry best known for the roles of Félicie, Belle's eldest sister, in Jean Cocteau's '' La Belle et la Bête'' (1946), and as Ge ...

as Dancing Girl

References

Bibliography

* Kennedy-Karpat, Colleen. ''Rogues, Romance, and Exoticism in French Cinema of the 1930s''. Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013.

External links

* 1938 films 1938 drama films 1930s French-language films French black-and-white films Films directed by G. W. Pabst Films based on Belgian novels Films set in Hong Kong Films set in Shanghai Films shot at Joinville Studios Films shot in Vietnam French drama films Second Sino-Japanese War films 1930s French films Films scored by Ralph Erwin Films with screenplays by Henri Jeanson {{1930s-France-film-stub

Cast

See also

References

Bibliography

External links