The opportunity to see
The Cheat, The Dragon Painter and
Mr. Wu on TCM last night was thrilling.
Sessue Hayakawa, whose sound era work in everything from
Three Came Home to
Swiss Family Robinson has fascinated me, was extraordinarily appealing and expressive. I really got such a kick out of the silent films broadcast last night on TCM that I didn't mind the scores a bit. Besides, there's always our friend the mute button!
![Image](http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL1997/11091067/19691809/320034030.jpg)
Capra's
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) later in the evening blew me away. Clearly, we're not in Bedford Falls in this movie. The director, then said to be in love with his star,
Barbara Stanwyck, never again created such a sensual feast for the eyes or soul as he produced in this tragic love story, (with a notable assist from cinematographer
Joseph Walker, whose images are rapturous). In addition to the subtly played romance, carried, imho, by
Nils Asther's nuanced performance,
Toshia Mori was beautifully photographed and credibly beguiling. Though I've seen his silents with Garbo & Joan Crawford, I'd love to see more of Asther's films now.
I thought that it was interesting that
Capra, as he did in the subtexts of his alleged "Capracorn tales" such as
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and
Meet John Doe, was exploring the idea that dreams and beliefs, while they may sustain a person, can also delude and destroy them. The fate of General Yen is sealed when he forgets his pragmatism by pursuing the
Stanwyck character. I did have some initial difficulty accepting the basically tough
Barbara Stanwyck as an idealistic, hopelessly naive Christian missionary, but her fervid dream about her exotic captor was truly erotic. Despite her unconventional looks, in this film her sensuality is allowed to luxuriate on screen as it rarely did in other films when she so often played hard-boiled, driven American dames, as she did in
Baby Face,
The Lady Eve,
Double Indemnity and
Ball of Fire. I think that the only other times I can recall the suggestion of real sensitivity and the depth of the banked fires in this actress are in some of her least known films:
Forbidden (1932), (also directed by Capra),
My Reputation (1942),
No Man of her Own (1950) and
There's Always Tomorrow (1956).
I was saddened to read that this film was a commercial failure when it was released. As I watched the story unfold I kept wondering why more of the exotic beauty seen in this film did not find its way into Capra's other Eastern sojourn:
Lost Horizon? Could it be that he was consciously striving for a more commercially viable product then?