The Shanghai Drama

Made during G. W. Pabst’s sojourn in France—with exteriors filmed in Hanoi and China—The Shanghai Drama is “the exile film to end all exile films, made on a Paris soundstage with a cast and crew of Austrians, Indochinese, and White Russians. This reverse Casablanca is the sort of minor masterpiece auteurists cherish, haunting confession in the guise of a despised genre work” (J. Hoberman). Louis Jouvet is the deliciously cynical Ivan, part of a Russian refugee spy ring in Shanghai. The plot revolves around a sad-eyed, sequined cabaret singer (Christiane Mardayne), who tries to extricate herself before the Sino-Japanese War begins.