Moscow Shanghai (1936)
Directed by Paul Wegener
Share on
Synopsis by Sandra Brennan
In this romantic melodrama, a widowed Russian noblewoman finds her torn asunder by the 1917 revolution. Just before she is to return home, she attends a grand ball. There she encounters a handsome young officer. Following the dance, she leaves her 7-year old with her maid and leaves in the company of friend and confidant who has secretly loved her for years. They are halfway there when the Bolsheviks attack the train. The lady then learns that her lover and best friend have been captured. Her friend joins the Reds and when the soldier is slated for execution, he intervenes and saves him. Meanwhile, the woman hides out with a priest and keeps looking for her daughter who disappeared during the struggle. She also searches for her friend and lover. Time jumps ahead to 1930. Now the woman works as a nightclub singer in Shanghai. There she runs into her old friend Again he proposes, and again she rejects him as she still pines for the dashing soldier. Later, they attend an Easter gala for expatriate Russians, and the woman discovers that the soldier has also become a singer. She is shocked, and further shocked to learn that he has become engaged to none other than her estranged daughter.
Characteristics
Keywords
against-all-odds, attack, ball [dance], capture, daughter, disintegration, Easter, entertainer, estate, expatriate, family-reunion, journey, love, maid, marriage, nightclub, officer, party, priest, refugee, revolution, Russia, search, sentence [penal system], shock, songwriter, train [locomotive], trip, war, widow/widower
