GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

writers_reign Never having seen it I have coveted this title for years on two counts; I am a great admirer of 1) Cliff Odets who was signed by Hollywood for this, his first screenplay, on the strength of his breakthrough play Waiting For Lefty, staged by The Theatre Group, and 2) John O'Hara, also on his first trip to Hollywood on the strength of his first two successful novels, Appointment In Samarra (1934) and Butterfield 8 (1936); visiting his friend Odets on the set he was coerced to playing a reporter more or less as a gag; Gary Cooper's character was also called O'Hara and he was continually confused and kept repeating 'but he's O'Hara' pointing to the novelist. I was, therefore, disappointed to find IMDb referring to O'Hara as 'the FUTURE novelist' but I was unable to correct this erroneous information.In its 80th year the film did tend to disappoint slightly although the occasional Odets line did shine through.

MartinHafer Gary Cooper plays Mr. O'Hara--a mercenary with a heart of gold. It seems that he's carrying money to help fund a revolt against a Chinese warlord, General Yang (Akim Tamirof). However, due to the work of an indifferently written woman (Madeleine Carrol), O'Hara is captured by Yang and the revolution is doomed to fail. It's up to O'Hara to somehow escape, find the money and then pay the arms merchant (William Frawley) so the revolution can commence.In general (bad pun, I know), the film is pretty good. However, Ms. Carroll's character simply made no sense. While she constantly professed that she was a good person, at every turn she behaved otherwise--making her confusing and quite stupid. How she could supposedly care for O'Hara AND betray him to be killed makes no sense at all nor do any of her actions. She is THE big problem with the film--otherwise it's mostly very good. Another problem, though much smaller, is that Dudley Diggs is perhaps the worst cast Chinese character in history. Despite decent makeup, his very, very strong English accent made him laughable--as much as Katharine Hepburn playing a Chinese lady in "Dragon Seed"! As for Cooper, he was cool--playing his heroic macho role extremely well. While it was rare to see a heroic man slap a woman, here it was quite fitting and he carried it off well in macho heroic fashion, he slugged a lot of folks in the movie! Because of this, his professing his love for Carroll at the end really made no sense. And, And, although Akim Tamirof wasn't the least bit Chinese, his General Yang was also quite good--and menacing. In fact, all the production aside from Carroll and Diggs was pretty good and I can see why the film was a success. Of particular note was the very good fake Chinese makeup. Although lots of Anglos had these roles, at least they LOOKED pretty Asian--unlike many other films of the period (such as the Charlie Chan pictures). Reasonably well made and interesting, though far from Cooper's best from this era.By the way, from what I have read about William Frawley in real life, he pretty much played himself in the movie.

wes-connors As Universal states, in their nicely packaged DVD set entitled "The Gary Cooper Collection" (2005), the celebrated actor is "a mysterious American soldier of fortune determined to foil the ambition of a ruthless enemy general planning to take over the provinces of Northern China. Exotic settings, captivating performances, and extraordinary cinematography power this thrilling tale of courage in the line of fire." The story isn't as substantive or engaging as the presentation, but quality certainly permeates the production. "The General Died at Dawn" helped Mr. Cooper become Quigley Publications' "World Box Office" male star of 1936. In beautiful form, Madeleine Carroll (as Judy Perrie) certainly helped. Of five "Best Supporting Actor" possibles, Akim Tamiroff (as General Yang) received the "Oscar" nomination.****** The General Died at Dawn (9/2/36) Lewis Milestone ~ Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, William Frawley

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) It's got the idealistic but hardboiled liberal-minded gun-toting man of action with a monkey on his back (literally!) who will probably end up opening his own café in Casablanca one day, the curvaceous, mysterious two-timing lady (from Shanghai, no less!), and, if you count Chinese warlords and American gun merchants, it's even got gangsters. That and the impeccable and moody black and white photography emphasizing some very seedy set-ups make it a very distinct ancestor of the film noir. Its slightly off-kilter sense of rhythm probably also inspired films like "Lady from Shanghai" and even "Last Year at Marienbad". As if that isn't enough, this is the film that gave us the wonderful line "We could have made beautiful music together". This film has everything, in spades: atmosphere you can cut with a knife, a sense of time and place, witty dialogue, innuendo allowing for mature human sexuality and its expression and a literary and politically sensitive subtext provided by American playwright Clifford Odets. The acting ensemble is peerless, even if it's Akim Tamiroff's show. Madeleine Carroll never looked or sounded better (she was a doll in "The 39 Steps" but she's all grown up here) and, as usual, Gary Cooper gives a legendary performance, aided by Wener Janssen's ethereal music. Extra bonus: The ending is one of a kind and may still shock some. This film is available on DVD as part of 5-film Gary Cooper Collection.