The Bitter Tea of General Yen

1932
Approved
1h 28m

ÉVALUATION IMDb

MA NOTE

Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)

Political Drama Steamy Romance Drama Romance War

Un seigneur de guerre chinois et une missionnaire chrétienne fiancée à un autre homme tombent amoureux.Un seigneur de guerre chinois et une missionnaire chrétienne fiancée à un autre homme tombent amoureux.Un seigneur de guerre chinois et une missionnaire chrétienne fiancée à un autre homme tombent amoureux.

Director
- Frank Capra
Writers
- Grace Zaring Stone
- Edward E. Paramore Jr.
Stars

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

ÉVALUATION IMDb

6,9/10

4,5 k

MA NOTE

Director
- Frank Capra
Writers
- Grace Zaring Stone
- Edward E. Paramore Jr.
Stars

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

Prix
- 1 victoire au total

Photos69

+ 61

Rôles principaux32

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Barbara Stanwyck

Megan

Nils Asther

General Yen

Toshia Mori

Mah-Li

Walter Connolly

Jones

Gavin Gordon

Lucien Littlefield

Mr. Jackson

Richard Loo

Capt. 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)

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Prologue

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Histoire

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Le saviez-vous

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Anecdotes
The Bitter Tea of General Yen was the first film to play at Manhatten's fabled Radio City Music Hall upon its opening on January 6, 1933. It was also one of the first films to deal openly with interracial sexual attraction. It 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 opinion. In 2000, the film was chosen by film critic Derek Malcolm as one of the 100 best films in The Century of Films.

Gaffes
The beginning sequence takes place as the text reading the "Burning of Chapei" is flashed on the screen. The burning of Chapei occurred on September 18, 1931, while the film was still in production. The film follows the original novel, which was set in the late 1920s during the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese Civil War was clearly integrated into the plot of the film. Little, if any, of the plot makes reference to the Japanese/Chinese conflict of 1931-1932. None of the characters in film are identified as Japanese. Capra wanted it to be an Academy Award contender and hoped to create interest by adding this connection to the timely events.

Citations
Megan Davis: Can't you forgive her? She's only a child. You can always do so much more with mercy than you can with murder. Why don't you give her another chance? Oh, I know you feel that she has deceived you and sold information to your enemies; perhaps, even been unfaithful to you. All that's dreadful and if its true you have a certain justification in wanting to crush her. But, I want you to think of all those things and then forgive her. I don't know how you feel about Mah-Li; I mean, whether you love her or, well, as a lover. But, that's of no importance. I want you to see the beauty of giving love where it isn't merited. Any man can give love where he's sure of its return. That isn't love at all. But, to give love with no merit, no thought of return, no thought of gratitude even; that's ordinarily the privilege of God. And now its your privilege. Oh, General, with all you have within you, your superior brain, your culture, how can you be so blind to spiritual braveness? Do this thing I ask you. Do it for me. Do it even blindly, if you must, and I promise you, I'm so sure of it, I promise you that for the first time in your life you'll know what real happiness is.

Connexions
Featured in Frank Capra's American Dream (1997)

Bandes originales
Onward Christian Soldiers
(1871) (uncredited)
Music from "St. Gertrude" by Arthur Sullivan (1871)
Lyrics by Sabine Baring-Gould (1865)
Sung by an unidentified quartet at the wedding

Commentaires des utilisateurs65

Commentaire

Commentaire en vedette

8/10

Bitter Tea sweet film making by Capra

A year before his major breakthrough film It Happened One Night director Frank Capra made this romantic tragedy that is filled with provocative topic and outstanding set design sensually photographed by master cinematographer Joseph Walker.

Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck) arrives in China in the middle of a civil war to marry her missionary husband Dr. Robert Strike and then work alongside him. Before they even marry they are separated during an evacuation and Davis finds herself in the hands of warlord General Yen (Nils Asther) . Yen at first mocks Davis but soon finds himself falling heavily for her.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen is filled with characters making bad decisions. Davis and Strike are nearly killed due to their naive condescension and trusting Megan is betrayed twice by her maid with huge consequence. General Yen cold and cruel as he may be also succumbs in his case to incurable romanticism. Only Jones (Walter Connolly) the arms dealer is grounded in reality to the dire situation that faces them.

Director Capra ably provides scenes of both chaos ( refugee evacuations, night battles ) and tranquility in the idyllic setting of Yen's compound palace where the General sets about seducing Megan with delicate charm while firing squads outside in the courtyard dispatch his enemy. Capra also finds time to get some satiric shots in at Western superiority and hypocrisy but it is the sexual tension between the leads that is at the center of Yen.

Megan's ambiguity is excellently conveyed by Stanwyck's actions and immature responses to the different world she finds herself. She's totally out of her element and her western ways are constantly checkmated by Yen. As Yen, Nils Asther cuts a dashing figure as the highly cultured warlord. He's cruel by occupation but sensitive in nature, especially around women as Jones informs us and it ultimately brings about his ruin. His scenes with Stanwyck resonate with cultural clash and erotic implication and Capra ups the ante even further with a Freudian dream that Megan has.

Capra went on to make more famous and bigger films but he would never approach the eroticism or cynicism that this provocative thirties work offered causing me to wonder if success took some of the edge out of him..