The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)

A Chinese warlord and an engaged Christian missionary fall in love.

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Grace Zaring Stone (story), Edward E. Paramore Jr. (screenplay)

Stars:

Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Toshia Mori

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Megan Davis
Nils Asther	...	Gen. Yen
Toshia Mori	...	Mah-Li
Walter Connolly	...	Jones
Gavin Gordon	...	Dr. Robert 'Bob' Strike
Lucien Littlefield	...	Mr. Jacobson
Richard Loo	...	Capt. Li
Helen Jerome Eddy	...	Miss Reed
Emmett Corrigan	...	Bishop Harkness

Storyline

The American missionary Megan Davis arrives in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War to marry the missionary Dr. Robert Strife. However, Robert postpones their wedding to rescue some orphans in an orphanage in Chapei section that is burning in the middle of a battlefield. While returning to Shanghai with the children, they are separated in the crowd, Megan is hit in the head and knocked out, but is saved by General Yen and brought by train to his palace. As the days go by, the General's mistress Mah-Li becomes close to Megan and when she is accused of betrayal for giving classified information to the enemies, Megan asks for her life. The cruel General Yen falls in love for the naive and pure Megan and accepts her request to spare the life of Mah-Li against the will of his financial advisor Jones. Meanwhile Megan feels attracted by the powerful and gentle General Yen, but resists to his flirtation. When Mah-Li betrays General Yen and destroys his empire, Megan realizes that to be able ...

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Plot Keywords:

general | missionary | palace | mistress | love | 

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Taglines:

They found a love they dared not touch!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin French

Release Date:

6 January 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

La amargura del general Yen

Filming Locations:

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jessie Perry is in studio records/casting call lists playing "Miss Reid," but that role was played by Helen Jerome Eddy.

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Quotes

Jones: Now, Miss Davis, maybe you think I acted pretty rotten tonight, but I know what I'm talking about. Mah-Li's not your kind: she's just a conniving little dame who deserves every bit that's coming to her.
Megan Davis: Including murder, I suppose?
Jones: Now, you let the General be the judge of that. He runs his own show out here with about 50 centuries of authority back of him. You missionaries come out here and expect to convert 500 million people overnight. Heh! Why, changing a leopard's spots is duck soup ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)

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Soundtracks

"Onward Christian Soldiers"
(1871) (uncredited)
Music from "St. Gertrude" by Arthur Sullivan (1871)
Lyrics by Sabine Baring-Gould (1865)
Sung by an unidentified quartet at the wedding

User Reviews

a Frank Capra's absorbing tale of interracial tension, if not outright romance, in China

Frank Capra made a sort of "little" film in 1933, little in that it starred then up-and-coming Barbara Stanwyck (the future iconic star of Double Indemnity and The Furies had only been in a few films before) and that it dealt with a topic that was very touchy to attempt for in 1933; only Griffith before had tried to deal with some kind of interracial bonding and/or sexual tension between white and Chinese people on screen, at least to my knowledge. What ended up working in favor for Capra with his story, and what makes it still work today still despite the creaky bits of racist dialog (i.e. "China-man" is repeated throughout by the supposedly tolerant missionary Megan Davis), is the script. This has excellent dialog and a potent message about trying to make a difference, to make some sort of change where things are, perhaps in simplification (hey, it's Capra), about the same as they've been for 2,000 years.

It's a message that infers some tendencies to prejudices on both sides, of the white well-educated woman who sees to do good wherever she can and the stalwart General who will try to impress and act cordial around the lady but mostly because he wants to have his way- which may be with her. The story itself sounds kind of typical, probably because by today's standards it is: Megan Davis has just come to China to do missionary work but is caught in the midst of a bad civil war going on, and after a tumultuous battle she gets caught up in in the streets and is knocked out is taken into the 'care' of General Yen (Nils Asther, no, not Chinese apparently but does so good a job as to not notice *too* much). She cannot leave his custody at his palace because of the battling blocking up the train tracks, and has to stick tight... in the span of a week she tries to spare a life of a spy and almost falls for Yen, or maybe more than almost.

It's actually the one complicated and really exacting thing in this production is seeing Asther and Stanwyck on screen. I'm not sure if the latter gave quite a great performance, but for what she's given she elevates it into a stern-faced but kind-hearted portrayal of a woman caught in an untenable situation, and Asther gives as good as he can by bypassing the obvious pit-fall of stereotyping by making Yen a very human figure. He's a man of class and taste but also tradition and with that typical double-edged sword of being ruthless with slaughter and elegant in decorum and in attitude. Somehow Capra is able to garner very good work from them with a story that, in the wrong hands, could become the most ham-fisted thing on the planet.

Luckily not only is Capra uncompromising in dealing with the issues at hand both upfront and underlying in terms of race and ethnicity and just the clashing of cultures, but in technical terms with the bits of battle scenes (the shoot-out late in the film at the train station is breathtaking for 1933 and pretty good for today), and it shows a director so confident in his craft that he could be ready for better things. It might be dated... actually, it is dated. But for any and all faults, it's a picture made with surprising sensitivity and compassion for all its characters, and it doesn't stick to clichés just for the sake of it - it's a solid drama without much pretension, save for a dream sequence that's actually hallucinatory in the best way.