The Bitter Tea of General Yen

The groundbreaking novel that was the basis for Frank Capra‘s strange, shocking drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and Nils Asther. Traveling to Shanghai to marry her medical missionary fiancé, the beautiful Megan Davis finds herself caught in the toils of civil war between Republican and Communist forces. Determined to save the inhabitants of an orphanage in a Communist-occupied city nearby, Megan joins a nighttime rescue mission that ends up under attack by a mob. She avoids death only thanks to the intervention of General Yen, who brings her to his palace, where they come to form an unlikely trust and companionship in one another. As the political climate sours and violence outside the palace walls escalates, the motives behind various associates of the General are called into suspicion, leading to an unexpected and irreparable betrayal. Originally published in 1930, this absorbing novel of war-torn China was adapted into a film in 1933. With a new foreword by Victoria Wilson. Vintage Movie Classics spotlights classic films that have stood the test of time, now rediscovered through the publication of the novels on which they were based.