Product: General Died at Dawn [VHS]
Rating: 4.0
Coop enmeshed in a Chinese revolution
The stoic and handsome Gary Cooper playing American mercenary O'Hara, becomes involved in an attempted overthrow of the corrupt, despotic Chinese General Yang played by Akim Tamiroff by acting as a courier carrying money to purchase arms for the opposition.Yang, also desperate for money and arms, has also recruited foreigners to aid his cause including the father-daughter team played by Porter Hall and the alluring blonde Madeleine Carroll. Carroll lures Cooper aboard a train headed for Shanghai where she helps separate him from his cache of money. Cooper is captured and imprisoned by Yang.All the while, Chinese patriots sympathetic to Cooper's cause plot to free him and reaquire the funds.While the film is a tad too melodramatic director Lewis Milestone does an effective job in his portrayal of this excerpt in history. Of note is the casting of William Frawley, better known as Fred Mertz from TV's classic "I Love Lucy", playing Brighton the gruff, tough talking arms dealer.