Shanghai Surprise ½ (1986, Madonna, Sean Penn) – Classic Movie Review 12,926

The 1986 car crash of a film Shanghai Surprise stars then-newlyweds Madonna and Sean Penn. Is it so bad it’s good? Pretty much. Madonna won the Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actress

Director Jim Goddard’s 1986 car crash of a film Shanghai Surprise stars then-newlyweds Madonna and Sean Penn. Is it so bad it’s good? Pretty much. Madonna won the Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actress.

At the height of their fame, Madonna and Sean Penn came a terrible cropper with this awful oriental romantic adventure comedy film. Madonna plays Gloria Tatlock (!), a lovely, feisty 1930s missionary nurse, who hires sleazy Shanghai-based con man Glendon Wasey (Penn) to find a stolen cache of opium to ease the suffering of her patients, in a plot that the humblest 1930s B-movie would have eschewed.

‘Eschewed’ means ‘deliberately avoid using’; but frankly it could mean ‘chewed and spat out’. The character names of Gloria Tatlock and Glendon Wasey really don’t inspire confidence, do they? Not to mention Willie Tuttle and Justin Kronk.

The stars, besieged by the world’s press, are at their least ingratiating. That is a shame, as they are both extremely capable and charming people.

Producer George Harrison wrote and recorded five original songs for the soundtrack and appears in the film as a night club singer/ bandleader.

His five original songs are: ‘Shanghai Surprise’, “Someplace Else”, “Breath Away from Heaven”, “Zig Zag”, and “Hottest Gong in Town”.

The screenplay by John Kohn and Robert Bentley is based on Tony Kenrick’s 1978 novel Faraday’s Flowers.

It was produced by George Harrison’s HandMade Films and distributed by Columbia-Cannon-Warner Distributors (UK) and MGM Entertainment (US).

The film was a shock flop, and a soundtrack album was never released. It had a budget of $15 million and took $2.31 million (US). Did video come to the rescue? Well, no. The home video was released in 1987 by Vestron Video, who paid $5 million for distribution rights but it sold only 100,000 copies in the US, causing Vestron a $1 million loss. The video cost $79.98 back in those days! Vestron Video was active from 1981 to 1993 as a successful pioneer in the home video market.

However that does mean 100,000 people were interested.

Madonna won the Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actress, and it was nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actor, Worst Director, and Worst Original Song (‘Shanghai Surprise’). And it was nominated for Worst Picture at the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. Well, you get the picture, people didn’t like it.

Jim Goddard’s initial cut of the film was rejected by MGM executives but he found that no other studio was interested.

Principal photography began in Macau and Hong Kong in January 1986. By the second day of filming the production was inundated with press and photographers, upsetting the stars, and Harrison flew to Hong Kong to try to smooth things over between the cast and press.

Madonna and Penn tried to distance themselves from the film by removing their likenesses from the tie-in novel a few days before it was set for the printers.

Richard Griffiths didn’t seem to have fond memories of filming. He recalled: ‘Sean Penn always had an ace of trumps up his sleeve. “Do as I say or I’m out of here.” Boy, did he know how to manipulate that situation with Madonna.’

Jim Goddard worked on The Avengers series on ITV from 1961 to 1969. He directed The Black Stuff (the 1980 BBC TV play that launched the Boys from the Blackstuff series) and Reilly, Ace of Spies (the 1983 TV miniseries).

The cast are Sean Penn as Glendon Wasey, Madonna as Gloria Tatlock, Paul Freeman as Walter Faraday, Richard Griffiths as Willie Tuttle, Philip Sayer as Justin Kronk, Clyde Kusatsu as Joe Go, George Harrison as night club singer, Victor Wong as Ho Chong, Lim Kay Tong as Mei Gan, Michael Aldridge, and Sarah Lam.

Penn met Madonna on set of her Material Girl music video in January 1985. They married on Madonna’s 27th birthday on August 16, 1985; Penn turned 25 the next day. In January 1989, Madonna filed for divorce.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,926

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