Description:

(Josef von Sternberg, 1941, US, 35mm, 91 min.)

Disappointed by the conventional offerings at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1949, Langlois and author/filmmaker Jean Cocteau organized a film festival in nearby Biarritz that they named Festival du Film Maudit, meaning “cursed” or “damned” films. Included were then-infamous works like Kenneth Anger’s homoerotic Fireworks, and many others that were overlooked or dismissed by critics. One of these was The Shanghai Gesture which follows the exploits of Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), the outrageously coiffed proprietress of the city’s most notorious gambling den (designed to resemble Dante’s circles of hell). Gene Tierney stars as “Poppy,” the troubled daughter of Gin Sling’s former lover, and Victor Mature plays Dr. Omar, a Fez-wearing hustler. Director von Sternberg’s unmistakable mise-en-scène adds to the debauched atmosphere.

Archival 35mm print from the George Eastman House