It was directed by Frank Capra and stars Barbara Stanwyck in her pretty, vulnerable youth, but it comes out as a sluggish and uninspired romantic melodrama.
Stanwyck is a missionary who is waylaid and sequestered in Shanghai by the local warlord, Nils Asther, in the most grotesque Oriental make up known to man or beast. He courts her with presents and poetry, but Stanwyck has seen him execute some prisoners of a rival warlord and, although she's attracted by his courtly manners, she's repelled by the brutality he tells her is necessary to the safety of his province.
The decor is echt-Hollywood. So are the costumes, which are about one hundred years out of date. The plot is only half that age.
In 1932, China was in fact ruled by warlords but they'd been organized into two rival armies -- the Nationalists under Chang Kai Shek and the Communists under Mao Tse Tung. The Communists had been largely driven out and taken refuge in a northern province. The two armies were later to loosely reunite to fight Japanese incursions before returning to the fighting that had been suspended. Chang lost.
Stanwyck should have been able to contact her Consulate one way or another. Shanghai, like Hong Kong, was a European enclave and a sophisticated port city. It is gradually reverting to type.
But none of that has to do with the story, which has to do with love, greed, power, and treachery. Richard Loo appears as Captain Li, the palace tattle-tale. Buffs will recognize him as the sneaky enemy in various movies about World War II and Korea. He can't make up for Nils Asther.
It's probably Capra's most innovative movie as far as technique is concerned. There is a weird dream sequence in which Asther batters his way into her locked room and is about to ravish her with his inch-long fingernails, about as attractive a prospect has being ravished by the aged Howard Hughes with HIS Mandarin fingernails. Freud said that all dreams were a form of wish fulfillment. If that's true, Stanwyck is pretty perverse, especially for a missionary.
Stanwyck is a missionary who is waylaid and sequestered in Shanghai by the local warlord, Nils Asther, in the most grotesque Oriental make up known to man or beast. He courts her with presents and poetry, but Stanwyck has seen him execute some prisoners of a rival warlord and, although she's attracted by his courtly manners, she's repelled by the brutality he tells her is necessary to the safety of his province.
The decor is echt-Hollywood. So are the costumes, which are about one hundred years out of date. The plot is only half that age.
In 1932, China was in fact ruled by warlords but they'd been organized into two rival armies -- the Nationalists under Chang Kai Shek and the Communists under Mao Tse Tung. The Communists had been largely driven out and taken refuge in a northern province. The two armies were later to loosely reunite to fight Japanese incursions before returning to the fighting that had been suspended. Chang lost.
Stanwyck should have been able to contact her Consulate one way or another. Shanghai, like Hong Kong, was a European enclave and a sophisticated port city. It is gradually reverting to type.
But none of that has to do with the story, which has to do with love, greed, power, and treachery. Richard Loo appears as Captain Li, the palace tattle-tale. Buffs will recognize him as the sneaky enemy in various movies about World War II and Korea. He can't make up for Nils Asther.
It's probably Capra's most innovative movie as far as technique is concerned. There is a weird dream sequence in which Asther batters his way into her locked room and is about to ravish her with his inch-long fingernails, about as attractive a prospect has being ravished by the aged Howard Hughes with HIS Mandarin fingernails. Freud said that all dreams were a form of wish fulfillment. If that's true, Stanwyck is pretty perverse, especially for a missionary.