Product: General Died at Dawn [VHS]
Rating: 3.0
Blood on the Sun Meets The Maltese Falcon.
Pretty good Eastern intrigue made before Hollywood had decided how exactly they were going to do it. Therefore it is driven more by character than by plot, unlike the fun but mass-produced programmers that began to follow when the rumblings of world war got louder. TGD@D is sometimes slow, but always atmospheric and well-shot, with indistinctly noirish tension and nifty direction by Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front, Halls of Montezuma) bailing it out most of the time. The atmosphere throughout the film is dark and uneasy, not unlike the early portions of Lost Horizon. It captures well the uncertainty of a country in conflict. It also is an excellent example of how dark and mysterious, exotic and almost spooky that we thought China was in the mid-30's era, when Fu Manchu was at his most popular and our own country was none-too secure, within or from without.The plot has to do with mercenary Gary Cooper initially failing in his mission to secure guns for local Chinese rebels battling warlord Akim Tamiroff, and then trying to rectify the situation. Along the way there are captures and escapes, duplicitous motives, romance, redemption and death. The downbeat ending is probably the best-known part of the movie and underscores Hollywood's cautious fascination with Chinese ritualism.It's a spy noir, and a reasonably enertaining one.Also reference: The movies mentioned earlier; Spy in Black; Night Train To Munich; Cloak and Dagger (1946).