East of Shanghai

Moviecut—East of Shanghai

source: East of Shanghai

As with most of the early Hitchcock, there are some wonderful images in this film. Unfortunately, the characters are so vapid and so stupid that it makes no difference. We have a spoiled guy and his loyal wife who suddenly come into money and decide to go on an ocean voyage. Of course, it's the old, don't wish for too much, you may get it. They each get involved in affairs and, of course, it's all about the reconciliation and realizing what you have. I was never able to believe it for a minute. The best part of the film is the first five minutes, when our hero battles the elements and the subway to return home with thoughts of "the gas pipe." The wife reminds him of how fortunate they are until the letter arrives. Anyway, it all takes on from there. She is quite prudish and innocent but turns too fast to another man. It didn't work for me.

A small discrepancy in the user review of this film I felt needed correction: the number 19 is the number of the con artists room and the number repeated several times, not 22 as stated. A good film and some really unsettling sexual politics that really astounded me considering this movie was released in 1932.

One of the problems with Hitchcock's reputation as "master of suspense" is that any films whose faces don't fit tend to get overlooked. Rich and Strange is just such a picture, although it was apparently a project close to Hitch's heart, and incidentally is very good indeed. One of the best aspects of Hitchcock's early British work is that it has a grace and beauty to it that was missing in the emotionally cold (albeit technically brilliant) features of his Hollywood career. Rich and Strange is arguably the most graceful and beautiful of them all. We open with a tight rhythmic sequence that reminds me of the early musicals of Rene Clair, or Rouben Mamoulian in Love Me Tonight, with the characters' activities – in this case the lead man navigating the rush hour – choreographed to a musical score. Later we are treated to a comical montage of a whistle-stop tour of Paris, and on the cruise a series of flowing, dreamlike images. Like all of Hitchcock's earliest pictures, Rich and Strange features a lot of visual attention-grabbing, such as obtrusive camera moves or similar images dissolving into each other. Sometimes – particularly in his silent films – this could be a bit unnecessary and distracting, but in Rich and Strange it works for two reasons. First, it is always woven into that musical flow of images. Secondly he never allows it to interfere with the dramatic moments. In the second half of the picture, when the drama becomes more intense, his visual style settles down and the scenes are shot in a fairly straight ahead manner. This balanced structure, switching smoothly from heavy stylisation to stark simplicity as and when the story demands it, makes Rich and Strange all the more affecting and compelling. The plot has similarities to the forbidden-love dramas that Cecil B. DeMille made in the late teens and early 20s. Like DeMille, Hitchcock uses positioning of characters to show the affairs developing – increasingly pairing the lovers together in one shot, amidst pretty framing devices. What is particularly neat is how, as Henry Kendall and Joan Barry's marriage starts to fall apart, Hitch several times frames them side by side appearing as mirror images of each other. These shots look quite funny, but also seem to summarise the state of mind of an increasingly bored couple. The dialogue is more or less superfluous – which is just as well with the appalling sound quality. Contrary to what some have said, Rich and Strange is not "one for Hitchcock completists only". Of course it will come as a disappointment for anyone expecting a thriller, but taken as the romantic drama that it is, this as tightly structured and expertly envisaged as the greatest of his suspense pictures. Rich and Strange is easily the best film from the first ten years of Hitch's career, and I would even go as far as to place it among the top four or five Hitchcocks of all time.

Many people think of Hitchcock, and when many of them do, they think of 3 movies: Birds Psycho Rear Window. But this film along with many other rarely heard of Hitchcock films are great! This one particulary because it was Hitchcock's first use of a blonde in sound films. Many would follow. Hitchcock also made this film sort of autobiographical of himself. I recommend it to all Hitchcock fans.

Like Hitchcock's earlier film "Blackmail", "Rich and Strange" contains elements of silent film as a holdover from an earlier era. It features extended scenes uninterrupted by voice, and the use of inter title cards from time to time. Considering the lack of a murder victim, the movie plays out interestingly as it follows the infidelities of a married couple on board a round the world cruise. Some of it works, and some of it doesn't. What I enjoy in the early Hitchcock films is the experimentation with themes that will become a hallmark of the director's style in later years. The use of humor is abundant in the early going, starting out with the choreographed umbrella routine in an early scene. There's also the three shipboard friends that appear from time to time that walk and gesture in unison. Elsie Randolph's running gag as the Old Maid is also a frequent comedic break, that just about runs it's course by the story's end. The troubled marriage at the heart of the story is believable enough, as Fred Hill (Henry Kendall) and wife Emily (Joan Barry) find comfort in the arms of shipboard strangers. It's when The Princess (Betty Amann) ditches Fred and absconds with his money that he's finally confronted with the sham and phoniness of his life by Emily. Why Emily goes back to him is a question mark though, that's not explored sufficiently, especially since she found her own soul mate aboard ship in Commander Gordon (Percy Marmont). Maybe it was Gordon's age, he appeared to have about twenty years on the disarmingly attractive Emily. I don't know about you, but I would have certainly made more of an effort to escape my cabin once I realized the cruise ship was sinking. Fred and Emily didn't strike me as being too panic stricken, with voices not much above normal. The black cat that passed by once they managed to escape was a nice touch, though the bad luck fell on the unlucky feline. I guess Chinese food had a reputation even back in the 1930's. The first time I saw the upside down drowning technique used in a movie was in the 1970 spaghetti Western "Cry Blood, Apache", but here it's used some forty years earlier, and with no malice involved. However it seems to me that the crew of the Chinese junk might have made an effort to save their buddy. The trade off for a newborn baby was a redemptive moment. If you watch the film again, pay attention to the Gordon photograph that Emily draws herself into with a marker. It's shown at three different times, and each time the drawing is slightly different. I wonder why they do that; was it a precaution against the possible loss of one of the pictures? A similar situation with an altered photo occurs in "Mr. Moto's Last Warning". I rather enjoyed "Rich and Strange", it's informative and fun to see the early work of a director of Alfred Hitchcock's stature. It's not often the title of a film also describes it's own action, this one is indeed both rich and strange.

In this early Alfred Hitchcock film, some more production values were invested in Rich and Strange than you would normally find in an early British sound film for 1931. Hitchcock did actual location shooting in Port Said and in Marseilles in this travelogue of a movie. Marrieds Henry Kendall and Joan Barry seem to have settled in a very comfortable rut in their marriage. Might have been different had they had some children, but apparently that was not to be the case. Certainly if a small legacy hadn't come their way they would not have invested it in a round the world cruise. But spend it that way they did and it proves to be an adventure of sorts. Both go on some flirtatious flings and a shipwreck in the China seas manages to bring them both together. One thing I did like was the special effects in handling the sinking of their ship, quite good for its time. The dramatic highlight of the film is Kendall and Barry who were left on the drifting hulk of the ship, there and later on the Chinese junk that rescues them. The Chinese are portrayed with unusual sensitivity in terms of Kendall and Barry recognizing that while they're different and appear strange, they've got no right interfering in their culture. Still its not what you would expect from Hitchcock, no chases after the McGuffin, no intricate murder or spy plots. He's out of his element, but to be fair he wasn't big enough to be calling his own shots then.

Rich and Strange or East of Shanghai, is a British romantic comedy dating from the transitional period between silent and sonic film. It was not very popular at the box office, but remains one of the director's (Alfred Hitchcock) favorite works from the period. The reasons seem obvious enough. Unlike the classic Hitchcock thriller/mystery/comedy "The Lady Vanishes" released several years later, Rich and Strange was an adaptation of a semi-comedic novel which was not plot-heavy but did rely on equally strong characterization. Hitchcock took the change of pace for a ride, and played with visual experiments, jokes and even visual metaphors which, if you notice them and think about them, actually enhance character development. Some reviewers have complained about the use of placecards - actually I think this was intended to enhance the comedic aspect of the film. Take a look back two years at Hitccock's "Blackmail" for comparison. This film was originally intended and partially shot silent. Hitchcock neither used placecards nor did he need them to convey his points in Blackmail. There are some classic bits of Hitchcock camera-work here. During meaningless conversations, meaningless framing is used seemingly to mock the action of the film itself. The classic example of this is a pair of symmetrically arranged scenes where two of the main characters are walking to and from a social event on a cruise ship, blathering away, while the camera follows their feet and Emily's (Joan Barry) dragging dress. Jarring, yet humorous! Joan Barry's stunning and adorable portrayal of Emily -our protagonist- is a bit of a perverse male fantasy - she is beautiful, intelligent (when she needs to be) and undervalues herself terribly - so her loyalty to a husband deserving of much much less is a bit exasperating. She is married to a whining, opportunistic, bore named Fred, and becomes romantically attracted to the charming Commander Gordon. The story boils down to this: Emly and Fred lead a life which causes Fred to whine (but this, it becomes clear later, is genetic and part of the fiber of his being). One night, they receive an early inheritance and decide to take a cruise around world and live the good life. Fred, however, remains the miserable lout he was at the beginning, but adds to his follies alcoholism, philandering, and seasickness. Money does not cure everything - a bit of cliché, but, with Rich and Strange, it doesn't end there. All of the acting is quite good, though as some have noted, it is sometimes over-the-top (perfectly appropriate for a comedy, IMO).

This happens to be one of my favorite movies. It has humor, shipwreck, shows life is unfair and that love may not last and when you marry you need to forgive a lot! This was interesting, easy to follow, among the first hitchcocks, talkies, and is the greatest love story. I also like it because it was not overhyped or made a big deal over unlike the ever-so-boring overhyped Gone With The Wind or even Wuthering Heights. This is a family movie to watch over and over and if you find it to buy it will be about $1.00 or so. I reccomend this very different, offbeat, completely awesome movie to absolutely everyone in the whole world. I live in London, so I especially appreciated how this movie was and I am as old as the lead actress.....