Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Blistering performances.

During the McCarthy years the making of anti-Communist films was one way that studios and their employees assured the witchfinders that they were true blue Americans. Paramount dusted off one of their classics from the Thirties and remade it with anti-Communist twist and called in The Peking Express. It was hardly as good as the original.Joseph Cotten plays a doctor with the United Nations World Health Organization and the new People's Government has need of his services. Corinne Calvet with whom Cotten has history is your international woman of mystery. Calvet is no Marlene Dietrich, but in fairness to her she has a lot less to work with. Edmund Gwenn is a missionary priest who has served in China for decades and he's being given the heave-ho. If you've seen Shanghai Express you have a fair idea of what is happening. Marvin Miller is our villain, all the other roles are played by genuine Asians. He's the guy who is first a passenger on the train, then his men take the train hostage.Miller's character is that of a supreme opportunist who joins the Communist cause at the right moment. But he's strictly in business for himself to the absolute horror of idealist Communist Benson Fong who has a really ridiculous part. I mean really, no one could be that dumb.Cotten being the erudite person he was is given some good lines to defend the American way of life and he delivers them well. He's an idealist in his own way, he works for the UN and the World Health Organization out of an idea that good health should know no country boundaries. I wish some of what he said was in a better film.I have seen worse anti-Communist films coming from minor studios like Lippert, but this one isn't that much above it.

"Peking Express" is not so much a direct remake of "Shanghai Express" as a reworking of the same theme updated to the Chinese Communist era. Just about every Hollywood based, Chinese actor makes an appearance. In particular Benson Fong plays a prominent role. In real life he was a gourmet and ran a Beverly Hills restaurant so the cast and crew probably ate well during the shoot! Corinne Calvert invites unfavourable comparisons with Marlene Dietrich in the original. Calvert is more like a slut than a courtesan. She used to whinge that none of her Hollywood films showed off her formidable acting talent. (Your secret is safe with us, love!)Joseph Cotten's role is not the same as Clive Brooks's in the original. Cotten is fine in the scenes involving arguments, thought and romance, but unconvincing when mowing down bandits with a machine gun. Since he plays a doctor presumably he forgot or ignored his oath when forced into violence. Cotten and Calvert are a mismatch. This would have been a better film if Cotten's role had been split into two and a more virile, physical actor had done the shooting and romanced Calvert relegated to second lead leaving Cotten to debate and romance a more classy actress of the type he had previously appeared with. Much of the ideology discussed is dated and boring. Director William Dieterle to his credit keeps it moving at a reasonable pace, but keeping track of who is on what side leads to confusion. Another source of mystery is the running time. I clocked my print in at 81 minutes. Most of the reference books list 95 minutes, but the Motion Picture Almanac gives 90 which suggests some trimming/ editing went on before general release. This probably improved the film, but not a lot!

A remake of Sternberg's Dietrich classic which borrowed elements from Guy De Maupassant,the female character playing more or less the role of "Boule De Suif" and the situation being almost the same as in the writer's short story.The best part is the scenes on the luxury train:just have a look at Calvet's compartment!it's funny to hear the commie die-hard talk about dictatorship of the proletariat while savoring his food in the posh dining car.A muddled melodrama which blends finer feelings (the good doctor played by Cotten) ,preachifying (the priest)and strong anti-communism (the villains);Corinne Calvet ,a very good-looking French actress who remained almost unknown in her native land -where she made a handful of movies-and who is given a French surname (Grenier = attic),provides love interest ;the idealist courageous doctor proves us ,if we were not convinced ,that America is the land of freedom and just before he dies,the priest urges him to carry on with his GOOD work,God is on his side !For good measure ,there are good Chineses too: the loyal mother,trying to keep her offspring from evil ,and her son,who redeems his soul in the last sequences .Not a great Dieterle ,an entertaining yarn with lots of propaganda in the early fifties.

Peking Express was the second remake of Josef vonSternberg's Shanghai Express. In the original film, a group of railroad passengers escaping war-torn China are overtaken by Chinese; in the first remake, Night Plane to Chungking, a plane is forced down in a jungle surrounded by Japanese troops. In Peking Express, the chief villains are Chinese again, but the passengers are now refugees of the Communists. Joseph Cotten (as a doctor) and Corinne Calvet (as a "woman of the world") are among the pilgrims threatened by Oriental outlaw Marvin Miller and his gang. The elements of social and religious hypocrisy in the original Shanghai Express are downplayed in the 1951 version, as is the shady past of leading lady Calvet (who inadequately fills the role originated by Marlene Dietrich). Peking Express is not the classic that the vonSternberg film had been, but on its own is a snappy little melodrama.Hope you find this more useful than Petelush's posted review of this film, in which he confesses he may not have actually seen the film but describes his childhood vacations in detail? Why? Only slightly less useful than asking my cat for a film review.