Shadows Over Shanghai is a 1938 American drama film directed by Charles Lamont and starring James Dunn, Ralph Morgan, Robert Barrat, and Paul Sutton. Set in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the plot centers on the efforts of Japanese and Russian espionage agents to get their hands on an amulet which is the key to a $5 million fund meant to help China purchase munitions. Footage from the bombing of Shanghai during the 1937–1945 war was incorporated into several scenes.

James Howard Dunn, billed as Jimmy Dunn in his early career, was an American stage, film, and television actor, and vaudeville performer. The son of a New York stockbroker, he initially worked in his father's firm but was more interested in theater. He landed jobs as an extra in short films produced by Paramount Pictures in its Long Island studio, and also performed with several stock theater companies, culminating with playing the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline. This performance attracted the attention of film studio executives, and in 1931, Fox Film signed him to a Hollywood contract.