Following his two lackluster musicals, Lewis Milestone returned to form in 1936 with The General Died at Dawn, a film that in theme, setting and style is reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Express (1932).

The screenplay, written by Leftist playwright Clifford Odets (who also has a cameo), is derived from a pulp-influenced manuscript by Charles G. Booth.

Set in the Far East, it carried a sociopolitical theme: the “tension between democracy and authoritarianism.”

Gary Cooper plays the American mercenary O’Hara, a man possessing genuine republican commitments and whose character Milestone adroitly establishes in the opening frames.

His adversary is the complex Chinese warlord General Yang played by Akim Tamiroff.

Madeleine Carroll is cast as the young missionary Judy Perrie, a woman trapped between divided social forces, who struggles to overcome her diffidence and ultimately joins O”Hara in supporting peasant revolt against Yang.

Milestone brings to the adventure-melodrama his cinematic style and technical skills. There’s an impressive use of tracking, and a 5-way split-screen.

Particularly impressive was a widely noted use of a match dissolve that serves to transition action from a billiard table to a white door handle leading to an adjoining room, “one of the most expert match shots on record” according to historian John Baxter.

Milestone was greatly assisted by cinematographer Victor Milner, art directors Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté, and composer Werner Janssen in creating “his most exquisite and exciting if not most meaningful examination of social friction in a human context.”

Detailed Plot

The Northern districts of China are being terrorized by the ruthless Chinese bandit chief General Yang (Akim Tamiroff). He and his aides hope to rule the twelve provinces and subjugate China’s millions. Cooper’s O’Hara is an American soldier of fortune, who sides with the suppressed peasants, accepting the job of carrying a large sum of money to Shanghai to buy guns for their defense. His mission is to go to Pengwa, and then fly to Shanghai, where he is to meet with the loyal Mr. Wu and Mr. Chen, who are in contact with an American gunrunner named Brighton.

Lewis Milestone “(All Quiet on the Western Front”) directed with skill this popular political adventure, which was penned by playwright Clifford Odets (of the famed Group Theater), based on Charles G. Booth’s novel. Odets also played a bit part, alongside novelist John O’Hara and the Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky.

Oxford, General Yang’s chief aide, makes an attempt on O’Hara’s life at Penwa but fails. He then enlists the services of a cowardly American, Peter Perrie, to help him. Perrie plays on the sympathy of his daughter Judy, inducing her to lure O’Hara aboard a train, which is later intercepted by Yang’s troops. O’Hara is captured and the money is given to Perrie to carry to Shanghai. Perrie tries to double-cross the General and is about to leave when O’Hara, escaped from Yang, appears and kills him in self-defense. All are again captured by Yang’s men and taken aboard his junk to be tortured until they reveal the location of the money, which Perrie hid in a false lining of a suitcase. The money is found, but, at the same time, Yang is fatally stabbed. As he dies, O’Hara uses the General’s love of publicity to persuade him to set the free. He agrees, ordering his twelve aids to kill each other as he dies.

My Oscar Book:

Oscar Alert

Oscar Nominations: 3

Supporting Actor: Akim Tamiroff

Cinematography: Victor Milner

Score: Werner Janssen

Oscar Awards: None

Another polished adventure, “Anthony Adverse,” starring Fredric March, won the Best Cinematography Oscar for Gaetano Gaudio and the Score Award for Erich Wolfgang.

Walter Brennan won the Supporting Actor Oscar for “Come and Get It,” in the first year in which the Academy distinguished between lead and secondary roles.