Main Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Gavin Gordon, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly
Release Year: 1933
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
The Bitter Tea of General Yen is the oddest, least characteristic talkie effort of director Frank Capra. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the intended of an American missionary (Gavin Gordon) who is sent to spread the good word in China. During a military revolution, Stanwyck and her fiance inadvertently wander into forbidden territory while trying to help a group of orphans escape. The couple is forcibly detained by elegant warlord General Yen (played by Swedish actor Nils Ashter), who relies upon the financial advice of drunken American expatriate Walter Connolly. Yen is overcome with desire at the sight of Stanwyck; at first repulsed by his attentions, Stanwyck finds herself strangely drawn in by his charisma. When everyone but Connolly deserts Yen when he needs them most, Stanwyck offers to stay behind with the General. Fearing that he will never be able to truly attain the woman he so loves, the honorable General Yen commits suicide by drinking poisoned tea rather than put her in harm's way. The one scene that everyone remembers takes place during one of Stanwyck's fevered dreams, in which she imagines Yen as a Fu Manchu-type rapist, who then melts into a gentle, courtly suitor. Directed with the exotic aplomb of a Josef von Sternberg by the usually down-to-earth Frank Capra, The Bitter Tea of General Yen was unfortunately a box office failure, due in great part to its miscegenation theme (this was still 1933). Even so, the film was chosen as the first attraction at the new Radio City Music Hall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Robert Kalloch - Costume Designer, Edward Stevenson - Costume Designer, C.C. Coleman - First Assistant Director, Frank Capra - Director, Edward A. Curtiss - Editor, W. Franke Harling - Composer (Music Score), Joseph Walker - Cinematographer, Walter Wanger - Producer, Edward E. Paramore, Jr. - Screenwriter, Mrs. Grace Zaring Stone - Book Author
The film was the first to play at the Radio City Music Hall upon its opening in January, 1933.
General Yen was a box office failure upon its release and has since been overshadowed by Capra's later efforts. In recent years, the film has grown in critical acclaim. In 2000, the film was chosen by British film critic Derek Malcolm as one of the hundred best films in The Century of Films.
Plot
Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck) comes to China to marry a missionary (Gavin Gordon) and help in his work. During the Chinese Civil War, Davis and her fiancé enter the war zone to rescue orphans. They become separated at a railway station, and Davis is rescued/kidnapped by warlord General Yen (Nils Asther).
Yen becomes infatuated with Davis, and knowing that she is believed to be dead, keeps her at his summer palace. Davis meets Yen's financial adviser, American self-styled renegade Jones (Walter Connolly), the general's concubine, Ma Li (Toshia Mori), and his aide, Captain Li (Richard Loo). When Jones discovers that Ma Li has been spying for the enemy, Yen sentences her to death, but Davis pleads with him to spare her. Yen realizes that Ma Li will not change her ways, but sees this as an opportunity to "convert a missionary". He dismisses Davis' appeal to the Christian ideal of forgiveness as empty words, but accepts Davis's offer to serve as a hostage against the future conduct of Ma Li, against Jones' advice. Davis finds herself subconsciously attracted to her captor (as shown in a dream sequence).
When Ma Li and Captain Li betray the location of the general's money to the enemy, his army deserts him. Realizing that she has destroyed Yen, Davis goes to him willingly, as Yen prepares to drink poisoned tea.
