THE SHANGHAI GESTURE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 202, 7 May 1943, Page 13

THE SHANGHAI GESTURE

(United Artists)

ALTHOUGH our little man isn’t yet quite clear just what The Shanghai Gesture is, and although there were various moments in the film when he

could happily have made a frankly impolite one, he was, on the whole, interested in the queer set-up and curious to see just where he was being led. He now has the impression that he was being led by the nose, but he doesn’t mind much, Just what became of that game of poker, for instance, one in a long list of things that did not add up? At the time it had all the camera-pointing and trappings of Something Important. Oh, just an excuse for a whole lot of Powerful People to tell Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson-but in the stage-play 16 years ago she was Mother Goddam, a much more serious matter. Ssh! She ran a Chinese bawdy house. Now it’s only a gambling casino), that she must vacate her Gambling Casino within the next few weeks because Someone has purchased the whole district? What? Only an excuse to introduce that beautiful young creature Gene Tierney? She’s Poppy; she’s really the daughter of Mother Gin Sling, but she’s also the very very very wealthy daughter of Sir Guy Charteris, who must have had another name when he was married to Mother Gin Sling a long long time ago. Or just an excuse to let Poppy and that immature Victor (yes, Victor again!), do some effective eye-work. Well, whatever it was begun for, that game of poker fell through-and somebody had a full house to the ace. And the end of it all? Well, Mother Gin Sling invites a whole lot of Important People to a dinner party-Oh, lots of beautifully-dressed little Chinese servants, and baskets and baskets of food on that long, long polished tableand nobody ate anything! What did they do? They sat around while Mother Gin Sling uncovered the nasty bones in each one’s cupboard-especially the bones in the cupboard of Sir Guy Charteris. A long tale, but the short of it was that Mother Gin Sling brought little Poppy’s tinsel life to a quick end with a pretty little jewelled revolver. So that was the end of that little packet of trouble, and all those good and dinnerless actorsAlbert Bassermann, Eric Blore, Maria Ouspenskaya (she just stood behind a chair, she didn’t even have to speak), Walter Huston, and Phyllis Brookscould go home, leaving the gambling wheel to spin and spin... . Well, that’s the way I saw it. But your guess is as good as mine,