The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Infobox_Film
name = The Bitter Tea of General Yen


imdb_id = 0023814
producer = Walter Wanger
director = Frank Capra
writer = Grace Zaring Stone (story)
Edward E. Paramore, Jr. (screenplay)
starring = Barbara Stanwyck
Nils Asther
music = W. Franke Harling
cinematography = Joseph Walker
editing = Edward Curtiss
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = January 3, 1933
runtime = 88 min.
language = English
country = USA

"The Bitter Tea of General Yen" is a pre-Code 1933 film, directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther.

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 however. 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 fiancee 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.

Cast

*Barbara Stanwyck as Megan Davis
*Nils Asther as General Yen
*Toshia Mori as Mah-Li
*Walter Connolly as Jones, Yen's chief advisor
*Gavin Gordon as Dr. Robert Strife
*Lucien Littlefield as Mr. Jacobson
*Richard Loo as Capt. Li
*Helen Jerome Eddy as Miss Reed
*Emmett Corrigan as Bishop Harkness

External links

*
* [http://www.eeweems.com/capra/_general_yen.html The Bitter Tea of General Yen] A page about the 1933 movie with pictures and history