Dragon Seed (1944)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Directors:

Harold S. Bucquet
Jack Conway

Writers:

Pearl S. Buck (novel)
Marguerite Roberts (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

August 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

The lives of a small Chinese village are turned Upside down when the Japanese invade it. And heroic young Chinese woman leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against Japanese Invaders.

Plot Keywords:

Invasion | Village | China | Resistance | Book

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Jade Tan
Walter Huston	...	Ling Tan
Aline MacMahon	...	Ling Tan's Wife
Akim Tamiroff	...	Wu Lien
Turhan Bey	...	Lao Er Tan - Middle Son
Hurd Hatfield	...	Lao San Tan - Youngest Son
J. Carrol Naish	...	Japanese Kitchen Overseer
Agnes Moorehead	...	Third Cousin's Wife
Henry Travers	...	Third Cousin
Robert Bice	...	Lao Ta Tan - Eldest Son
Robert Lewis	...	Captain Sato
Frances Rafferty	...	Orchid Tan - Lao Ta's Wife
Jacqueline deWit	...	Wu Lien's Wife
Clarence Lung	...	Fourth Cousin
Paul E. Burns	...	Neighbor Shen

Runtime:

147 min (copyright length) | USA:148 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #10000) | Finland:K-16 | Argentina:Atp | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Chinatown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Filmed in 1943 on the MGM lot in Culver City during the Second World War, the film features an unusual assortment of non-Asian actors with odd accents playing Chinese and Japanese: Russian-born and Stanislavski-trained Akim Tamiroff as Wu Lien; Turhan Bey, Viennese born son of a Turkish father and Czechoslovakian mother as the middle son, Lao Er Tan; New England patrician Katharine Hepburn as his wife; American Aline MacMahon, no longer one of the wisecracking Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), as the wife of Ling Tang; English born Henry Travers (best remembered as Clarence the Angel from It's a Wonderful Life (1946)) as the Third Cousin;" Irish-America J. Carrol Naish as the Japanese Kitchen Overseer; and finally Jewish-American Robert Lewis, co-founder of the Actors Studio and Meryl Streep's teacher at the Yale Drama School as the Japanese Captain Sato.

Quotes:

Japanese Official: [to restaurant waiter] Oh, no wine, hunh, and where are your women?
[laciviously]
Japanese Official: There are other things than wine!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

Chee Lai

Tasteful version of Pearl Buck story...offbeat casting is intriguing...

It may be disconcerting to see blue-eyed Caucasian actors playing Orientals, but once this initial distraction is over, the story of DRAGON SEED takes over and it's an engrossing one. Film's chief flaw is the fact that Pearl Buck's story is overlong--and so is the film.

Chinese villagers have to flee the enemy, Japanese soldiers, during the 1930s, and WALTER HUSTON and ALINE MacMAHON are the sturdy head of a family that includes daughter KATHARINE HEPBURN, as Jade. None of the three principals are particularly convincing in their Oriental make-up, but it's still fascinating to watch them perform.

HURD HATFIELD, TURHAN BEY, AKIM TAMIROFF, JACQUELINE DeWIT and HENRY TRAVERS are further examples of offbeat casting, but the grim story of survival of the fittest under cruel exploitation by the enemy is well crafted and always interesting to follow.

The film is photographed in meticulous B&W, crisply produced in the handsome MGM manner--with main attention going to Huston and MacMahon who do nicely in the leading roles. Hepburn, thankfully, is less mannered and less on display than usual. One of the most interesting scenes involves her decision to poison her brother-in-law during a banquet at his "mansion".

Summing up: Admirers of other Pearl Buck works (like THE GOOD EARTH) should find this unusual drama well worth watching. MGM should be commended for producing a very tasteful version of the novel. Story ends on a fever pitch with a graphic simulation of "the scorched earth policy" as practiced by the Chinese villagers.