The Shanghai Story
1954 film by Frank Lloyd
The Shanghai Story is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Ruth Roman, Edmond O'Brien and Richard Jaeckel. It was based on a novel by Lester Yard. The film's sets were designed by the art director William Flannery. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures as one of the company's more prestigious releases.
Plot
A number of people, the last Westerners in Shanghai, are interned in a hotel by Major Ling Wu and his men. The Chinese government refuses to let anyone go until identifying a spy in their midst. When an assassin named Sun Lee breaks into the hotel and tries to kill one of the hostages, Dan Maynard, a doctor, and Knuckles Greer, a sailor, manage to intervene.
Dan is confounded by the beautiful Rita King's seeming ability to come and go as she pleases. It becomes obvious that the police chief Colonel Zorek considers himself her protector.
Ling is so determined to frighten the captives into exposing the spy that he kills Sun Lee the would-be assassin right in front of them, just to prove how far he is prepared to go.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Shanghai Story” as 1954 film by Frank Lloyd. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1954 film by Frank Lloyd. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19363821. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Shanghai Story”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Shanghai Story primary sources, The Shanghai Story archive and Shanghai research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Shanghai Story”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Shanghai Story” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.