Shanghai Surprise is a 1986 adventurecomedy film directed by Jim Goddard and starring then-newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna. The screenplay was adapted by John Kohn and Robert Bentley from Tony Kenrick's 1978 novel Faraday's Flowers. Produced by George Harrison's HandMade Films and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Harrison himself appears in the film as a night club singer, and he wrote and recorded five original songs for the soundtrack: "Shanghai Surprise", "Someplace Else", "Breath Away from Heaven", "Zig Zag", and "Hottest Gong in Town". The film was a critical and commercial failure, and an official soundtrack album was never released.
Plot summary
Glendon Wasey is a sleazy, down-on-his-luck con man struggling to sell glow-in-the-dark neckties in Shanghai. When he encounters the lovely Gloria Tatlock, a missionary nurse who wants to obtain a supply of opium to ease the suffering of her patients, he decides to help her get hold of a stolen supply of the valuable drug. The only problem is that a lot of other people want to secure the stolen opium as well—gangsters, smugglers, thugs and a host of upstanding air force recruits.
In November 1985 it was announced Madonna and then newlywed husband Sean Penn had signed to do Shanghai Surprise with principal photography set to begin in Macau and Hong Kong by January 1986.[2] Due to the high profile status of the stars real life relationship, by the second day of filming the production of the film was often inundated with photographers to the point Penn demanded the film's publicist be fired and replaced.[2] According to co-star Richard Griffiths, "Sean Penn always had an ace of trumps up his sleeve. He'd play his ace of trumps, win the trick and then put it back up his sleeve and then when the next drama was played, he'd pull out his ace of trumps again. And the ace of trumps was this: in Madonna's contract, and Penn was very sore about this because he saw himself as the star of the movie, there was a clause and it said Madonna shall have the casting approval of her leading man. In other words, if you don't do what I say, says Sean Penn, I quit and, if I quit, she won't agree with any other guy playing my part because, hey, she's my wife, and you don't have a movie, so go and f*ck yourselves. Do as I say or I'm out of here. Boy, did he know how to manipulate that situation with Madonna."[4]
George Harrison even reluctantly flew to Hong Kong to try and smooth things over between the cast and press.[5]Jim Goddard's initial cut of the film was rejected by executives at MGM, and Goddard’s attempts to find alternative distribution were fruitless resulting in his return to MGM.[2] Prior to release both Madonna and Penn attempted to distance themselves from the film with the two insisting their likenesses be removed from the tie-in novel from Viking Press a few days before it was set to hit printers.[2]
Marketing
Shanghai Surprise debuted following a "great deal of hype and promotion" in the United Kingdom,[6] including being hyped on the music television programme The Tube.[7] In the United States, however, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in October 1986, "The movie opened so poorly in its first wave of playdates (late August in the Northeast and Midwest) that MGM has made severe cuts in its marketing budget. One MGM exec was quoted in the trades as saying this was necessary because 'the interest in the film has been non-existent.'"[8]
Soundtrack
While an official soundtrack album for the film was never released, the title track was issued as a promotional single in 1986, new versions of both "Breath Away from Heaven" and "Someplace Else" were recorded for inclusion on Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine,[9] an alternate mix of "Zig Zag" (with the notable addition of backing vocals) was released as the B-side of Harrison's "When We Was Fab" single in early 1988, and "Hottest Gong in Town" was included on the EP that came with the 1992 book Songs by George Harrison 2. The title song and the single mix of "Zig Zag" were also added to the 2004 re-release of Cloud Nine as "additional tracks".
Critical reception
The film received mixed critical response during its pre-release.[10]Shanghai Surprise currently holds a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, indicating generally negative responses.[11]
Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald, granting it 1 star out of 4, wrote, "In Shanghai Surprise, as you may have heard, almost everything is just a bit off. Though widely anticipated as a musical, Shanghai Surprise is actually a kind of miniaturization of Raiders of the Lost Ark / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with a feisty heroine (Madonna) in the vain [sic] of Rita Hayworth in The Lady From Shanghai, and a roguish adventure hero (Sean Penn) as well as a pop-sprinkled score (partly the work of George Harrison)... There's a plot here, involving Madonna's quest to find a load of hijacked opium for conversion to morphine to help the troops fighting the Japanese. Penn, though he spends his big scene panting in a brothel, will save the day. But the film was conceived and executed as a star vehicle. Wrong stars, wrong roles, not much happening here. And for George Harrison and his Handmade Films, the first big bust."[12]The Philadelphia Inquirer also gave it only 1 star: "Shanghai Surprise is so dismally scripted and directed that no one could redeem it... an atmospheric, handsomely shot and, sadly, utterly empty piece of work."[13] The Lexington Herald-Leader called it "a turkey": "This film is bad. The acting is terrible. The hackneyed screenplay traffics in stereotype and yuk-yuk jokes. And the point is non-existent."[14] The San Diego Union said, "In its campy nostalgia for old adventure films, Shanghai Surprise is cloddish. There's something rotten at the core about a movie that would recycle lines like "That's mighty white of you." Even sadder is the realization that some of the old cornball movies are still fresher, more alive, than this regurgitation."[15]
The Philadelphia Daily News faulted the casting as well as the script: "The ever-important spirit is missing as Mr. and Mrs. Penn wrestle with old gags that are beyond their ken. It's not entirely their fault though: They've been given no characters to play. Much of Shanghai Surprise might have worked if they at least were permitted to play themselves — a punk rocker and punk actor at large in an alien movie world."[16] The Chicago Sun-Times, awarding the movie half a star, complained of its "warped attitudes toward women," adding, "It's hard to know for whom this wretch of a film was made. Idiotic dialogue should turn off the adults, teens will be disappointed by their rock heroine and kids shouldn't even be watching."[17] Film professor Michal Conford, of Ryerson University, reviewed the film for the San Jose Mercury News with another half-star rating, saying sardonically, "Shanghai Surprise stars Madonna and Sean Penn together for the first time and has songs by George Harrison. That is the most positive sentence that can be written about the film, now playing locally. MGM must have suspected – the company tried to open the film in places like Iowa to avoid getting slaughtered. Nice try... The film is supposed to be a shaggy dog adventure... Shaggy, no. Dog, yes."[18]
The home video was released by Vestron Video. The company paid $5 million for distribution rights.[20] The VHS debuted on Billboard's Top Videocassette Sales at number 28 and peaked at number 25 in the issue dated April 4, 1987.[21] With a retail price of $79.98,[22] the videocassette sold only 100,000 copies in the United States as of 1987, causing Vestron a $1 million loss.[23][20]
^Sellers, Robert (24 September 2013). Very Naughty Boys: The Amazing True Story of HandMade Films (Reprint ed.). London, United Kingdom: Titan Books. p. 279. ISBN9781781167083.
^Cosford, Bill (20 October 1986). "This Surprise is Bad News". The Miami Herald. p. 4C.
^Rickey, Carrie (19 September 1986). "Madonna Plays a Missionary, Sean Penn Sells Ties as They Pursue Opium and Each Other in Shanghai Surprise". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 8.
^Roberts, Michael (4 September 1986). "Shanghai's Surprise is that it's so bad". Lexington Herald-Leader. p. D5.
^Elliott, David (22 September 1986). "Shanghai isn't worth the trip". San Diego Union. p. D-1.
^Baltake, Joe (19 September 1986). "Laughing with the Penns in China". Philadelphia Daily News. p. 59.
^Voedisch, Lynn (1 September 1986). "Even Madonna can't save Shanghai". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 22.
^Conford, Michal (20 September 1986). "Shanghai Surprise Doesn't". San Jose Mercury News. p. 1C.
