The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) Director: Frank Capra
“East or West, men seldom deviate very far from their main passion in life.”
★★★☆☆
The “Orientalist” allure of the East has long fascinated and puzzled American moviemaking with early films like The Cheat (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919) and Shanghai Express (1932). An a-typical film for an otherwise sunny director, Frank Capra, The Bitter Tea of General Yen was a highly controversial film in its day for its depiction of an on-screen interracial kiss, but now it faces a new controversy for its portrayal of “yellow face” by Nils Asther as General Yen.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen tells the story of childhood sweetheart missionaries in Shanghai, China, during the Chinese Civil War as the Maoists were swept to power. Amidst the violence, the sweethearts –Megan and Bob– try to rescue an orphanage, despite the other older and skeptical missionaries who are prejudiced against the wild, untrustworthy, violent Chinese. Megan and Bob appeal to the powerful Chinese Warlord, General Yen, for safe passage. He gives them a humorous document in Chinese that causes other Chinese soldiers to laugh and steal their car once they arrive at the orphanage. In the scramble to board the train returning to Shanghai, Megan is knocked unconscious and she awakens on a train, having been rescued by General Yen. She is brought to his summer palace while he plots to overtake another province, and his American financial advisor has acquired $6 million housed near his palace. While Megan slowly falls in love with General Yen, his concubine Mah-li, betrays him. Before Yen can kill her, Megan defends Mah-li and claims if she has betrayed him, he can kill Megan instead. Meanwhile, Mah-li leaks information to the opposing forces at the temple, and the next day Yen’s riches are raided and his servants abandon him. In his empty palace, he pours himself poisonous tea, committing suicide while Megan embraces him claiming she will never leave him. The closing scenes show Megan and Yen’s drunken financial advisor aboard a boat bound for home, with the hope of meeting Yen again in another life.
The most memorable scenes in this film in my opinion include: 1) an erotic dream sequence in which Megan imagines a night of wild passion with General Yen, and 2) the closing scenes of the film as General Yen finds himself betrayed and abandoned before he chooses to kill himself with poisonous tea.
It was the first film to be played at the Radio City Music Hall, though quickly yanked due to unpopularity, most likely due to growing racist attitudes toward Chinese and “miscegenation”. It was heavily edited before release in Britain. The story is based on a novel of the same name by Grace Zaring Stone published in 1932.
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Credits:
- Director: Frank Capra
- Screenplay by: Edward Paramore
- Based on: The Bitter Tea of General Yen, a 1930 novel by Grace Zaring Stone
- Produced by: Walter Wanger
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck…..Megan Davis
- Nils Asther…..General Yen
- Walter Connolly…..Jones
- Cinematography: Joseph Walker
- Edited by: Edward Curtiss
- Production Company: Columbia Pictures