1936 film by Lewis Milestone
The General Died at Dawn is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets and directed by Lewis Milestone.[1]
It stars Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, and Dudley Digges. Director Milestone has a cameo role.
Plot
General Yang, a warlord with control of one of China's twelve provinces, plans to overtake them all with his army to corner the markets of silk, rice, and opium. However, the opposition in General Wu knows that Yang is lacking in enough men to hinder any chance of invasion, complete with desertion in certain numbers minus the most loyal. As such, Wu searches out for O'Hara, a soldier of fortune, to go to Shanghai to buy weapons from a gunrunner in Brighton that is selling to the first bidder. The money is kept in a belt that was funded by peasants under the oppression of Yang. In the way of all of this is the Perrie family, made up of Peter and his daughter Judy. Peter is dying soon and plans to take some of the money so Judy can see America. She reluctantly goes with her father's plan to distract O'Hara while Yang makes his way across the train to entrap him and snatch him in order to buy the weapons.
The romantic plan works to capture O'Hara, but Judy has second thoughts about the trip to America. Complicating matters is a man named Leach that tries to get a cut from Peter's theft. Peter hides the money in the lining of his suitcase and ignores his daughter's desire to not engage with the money. O'Hara escapes the capture of Yang and gets to the house where Wu is awaiting him. Peter tries to save himself and his hiding place by shooting him in the hand, but O'Hara get the upper hand and kills him. Yang arrives and takes Judy, O'Hara, and Wu all captive on the boat and want the money. Leach, trying to play at the hand of the General, is left to be shot by his men. Judy is prepared to tell Yang where the money is to save the lives of the other two, but Yang cruelly orders her to kiss O'Hara goodbye first. A man named Brighton finds the money in a stupor wanting alcohol when he awakens to see Yang's soldiers. When he angrily states the currency being American and tries to escape the clutches of soldiers, he stumbles onto an incoming Yang while having a knife that mortally wounds the general. O'Hara tries to state that Yang must let the folks live because otherwise the world will believe disloyal guards killed Yang. With the guns at hand, O'Hara, trying to save the lives of Judy and Wu, then pleas with him to let them live so they can tell the story of the greatness of the general. Yang, convinced, orders his men to kill each other for the sake of honor before he himself dies. Dawn breaks as Judy and O'Hara embrace.
Production
There are several scenes in the film that show startling originality at the time. At one point, the camera focuses on a white doorknob, and then dissolves to a white billiard ball to connect disparate scenes. In another scene, two characters have a conversation in which they speculate about the fates of other characters in the drama. The answers to their questions appear in screen segments in the corners of the screen, marking an unusual use of split screen to join narrative.
The main character, O'Hara, is based on the real-life Anglo-Canadian Jewish adventurer Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen. During the early 1930s, Cohen ran guns for various warlords in mainland China.
This is reported to be the first film to use foam latex prosthetics. Makeup artist Charles Gemora applied sponge rubber eyelids for one of the actors.
Reception
Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a mildly good review, calling it "as good as anything to be seen on the screen in London". Greene noted that it was "a melodrama of more than usual skill", but criticized the end of the film and suggested that but-for the "rather ludicrous ending, this would have been one of the best 'thrillers' for some years".[2]
John Howard Reid called it one of the fifty finest films Hollywood ever made.[3]
Awards and nominations
The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Akim Tamiroff), Best Cinematography, and Best Music, Score.
In popular culture
In 1938 an animated cartoon, called The Major Lied Till Dawn, was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions. In it, a major tells tall tales about his hunting adventures to a boy who resembles Freddie Bartholomew. The character of the major may have been influenced by Colonel Heeza Liar.
A third-season episode of the TV show M*A*S*H was entitled "The General Flipped at Dawn" (broadcast September 10, 1974). In the episode, Harry Morgan appears as Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele, a batty general who is convinced that the 4077th needs to move closer to the front lines, to be near the action. (Morgan formally joined the cast of M*A*S*H in Season Four as the much-saner Colonel Sherman T. Potter.)
The General Danced at Dawn is a collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser first published in 1970.
