The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Megan arrives in Shanghai from America; she is to marry her fiance and work as a missionary. There is civil war in the city. Trying to rescue orphans she is knocked out in the crowd and wakes in a compartment on a general's train. General Yen takes her to his headquarters. He does not release her and does not force her either; they talk, they eat, they argue. Megan tries to convert him. The general takes apart, one by one, the things she believes about herself. Frank Capra directs. Barbara Stanwyck plays Megan and Nils Asther plays General Yen. Toshia Mori and Walter Connolly are in the cast. It is an American production. The film was the first feature shown at the opening of Radio City Music Hall in New York. Because of the attraction across race it was banned from screening in Britain, and the production was a commercial failure. The part of General Yen did not go to an Asian actor; a Swede in makeup plays him, and that is the film's largest fault today. The matter it treats is the missionary's gaze; Megan believes she has come to help and the film takes her sense of superiority apart. Its famous dream sequence shows the general as monster and rescuer at once. Capra makes something entirely unlike his known populist comedies; the narrative is heavy, dark and romantic. The photography uses soft focus and shadow, and the scenes are bold for their time. The ending gives no coming together. Its limit is representation; the Asian characters are drawn with the cliches of the period and it is uncomfortable. Who it is for: viewers who like the strange corners of classic Hollywood, and Stanwyck. Who it is not for: it is dated, its representations are troubling, and the ending bitter.