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The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Year:

1933

Duration:

88 min

Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

IMDB rate:

7.1

Director:

Frank Capra

Details

Country: USA

Release Date: 1933-01-06

Filming Locations: San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Cast

Actor

Character

Barbara Stanwyck

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

Nils Asther

General Yen

Toshia Mori

Mah-Li

Walter Connolly

Jones

Gavin Gordon

Bob

Lucien Littlefield

Mr. Jacobson

Richard Loo

Captain Li

Helen Jerome Eddy

Miss Reed

Emmett Corrigan

Bishop Harkness

Jessie Arnold

Mrs. Blake (uncredited)

Clara Blandick

Mrs. Jackson (uncredited)

Robert Bolder

Missionary (uncredited)

Nora Cecil

Missionary (uncredited)

Wong Chung

Chinese Officer (uncredited)

Knute Erickson

Dr. Hansen (uncredited)

Willie Fung

Officer (uncredited)

Adda Gleason

Mrs. Bowman (uncredited)

Ella Hall

Mrs. Amelia Hansen (uncredited)

Daisy Jefferson

Mrs. Warden (uncredited)

Arthur Johnson

Dr. Schuler (uncredited)

Tetsu Komai

Gen. Yen's Messenger (uncredited)

Eddie Lee

Chinese Soldier (uncredited)

Milton Lee

Telegrapher (uncredited)

Lillian Leighton

Missionary (uncredited)

Harriet Lorraine

Missionary (uncredited)

Doris Louellyn

Mrs. Meigs (uncredited)

Martha Mattox

Miss Avery (uncredited)

Arthur Millett

Mr. Pettis (uncredited)

Moy Ming

Dr. Lin (uncredited)

Miller Newman

Dr. Mott (uncredited)

Robert Wayne

Rev. Bostwick (uncredited)

Ray Young

Engineer (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

Swedish actor Nils Asther played General Yen. Asian actors were never cast in lead roles in American productions at the time. Although multilingual, Asther did not speak Mandarin. However, he did use a Mandarin dialect for the part.

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The sets for this film were reused for Columbia's One Night of Love (1934).

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Chinese officials in Washington, D.C. complained about the depiction of the treatment of war prisoners in this film (which were toned down a bit) and some dehumanizing language about the Chinese people, such as "Human life is the cheapest thing in China," (which remains in the film).

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Quotes

Jones: Well, it's no skin off my nose.

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Megan Davis: You can always do so much more with mercy than you can with murder. Why don't you give her another chance?

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General Yen: Conquest of a province, or the conquest of a woman... What's the difference?

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Faq

A Note Regarding Spoilers

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

Was Megan in love with Yen?

From the content of her daydream, which begins with a fiendish Yen breaking into her bed chamber and ends with the handsome General making love to her, it's obvious that there is an attraction on Megan's part as well.

How does the movie end?

Having lost his entire fortune in the train robbery, Yen still assures Megan that everything will be all right. He invites her into his bedroom to see some swords, but Megan mistakes his intentions. He explains that he could never accept anything that the heart does not give willingly. Holding her in his arms, he admits that he was intending to kill her, as she promised him her life for Mah-Li's disloyality, and then he intended to kill himself. Megan runs crying from his room. Yen calls for a servant but realizes that they have all deserted him. He prepares a cup of tea and laces it with poison. Just as he's about to drink it, Megan enters his room, dressed Chinese style. She kneels at his feet and promises never to leave him. He tenderly wipes the tears from her eyes, but she continues to cry. Without saying a word, Yen drinks his bitter tea and promptly dies. In the final scene, as Megan and Jones head back to Shanghai on a boat, Jones eulogizes Yen while Megan sits by wordlessly. Jones expresses the hope that, when he dies, he'll go wherever Yen is. 'And I'll bet I find you there, too,' he says to Megan.

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