The Bitter Tea of General Yen
| The Bitter Tea of General Yen | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Frank Capra |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Screenplay by | Edward Paramore |
| Based on |
The Bitter Tea of General Yen 1930 novel by Grace Zaring Stone |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck |
| Music by | W. Frank Harling |
| Cinematography | Joseph Walker |
| Edited by | Edward Curtis |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, and featuring Nils Asther and Walter Connolly. Based on the 1930 novel The Bitter Tea of General Yen by Grace Zaring Stone, the film is about an American missionary in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War who gets caught in a battle while trying to save a group of orphans. Knocked unconscious, she is saved by a Chinese general warlord who brings her to his palace. When the general falls in love with the naive young woman, she fights her attraction to the powerful general and resists his flirtation, yet remains at his side when his fortune turns.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen was the first film to play at Radio City Music Hall upon its opening on January 3, 1933. It was also one of the first films to deal openly with interracial sexual attraction. The film 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 British film critic Derek Malcolm as one of the hundred best films in The Century of Films.
In the late 1920s in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War, as throngs of refugees flee the rainswept city, a couple of elderly missionaries welcomes guests to their home for the wedding of Dr. Robert Strike (Gavin Gordon), a fellow missionary, and Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck), his childhood sweetheart whom he has not seen in three years. Some of the missionaries have a cynical view of the Chinese people they have come to save. Shortly after Megan arrives, her fiancé Bob rushes in and postpones the wedding so he can rescue a group of orphans who are in danger from the spreading civil war. Megan insists on accompanying him on his mission.
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