An American oil company representative risks sacrificing his marriage for his career in the rural lands of China.
Acting
Pat O'Brien's slow-burn corporate devolution is quietly devastating.
Writing
Pre-Code dialogue that sneaks dark truths past the censors.
Production
Hollywood-built China that somehow feels authentically bleak.
Director
Mervyn LeRoy
Pat O'Brien
Stephen Chase
Josephine Hutchinson
Hester Adams Chase
Jean Muir
Alice Wellman
Lyle Talbot
Jim
Arthur Byron
No. 1 Boss
John Eldredge
Don Wellman
Donald Crisp
J.T. McCarger
Willie Fung
Kin
Tetsu Komai
Ho
Henry O'Neill
Edward Hartford
Ronnie Cosby
Bunsy Wellman
William B. Davidson
E.H. Swaley
George Meeker
Bill Kendall
Joseph Crehan
Clements
Christian Rub
Dr. Jorgen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on a popular 1933 novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart, who lived in China for 16 years and knew this world intimately.
Released months before the Production Code crackdown, this is exactly the kind of cynical, morally ambiguous drama the Hays Office would soon ban—no happy endings required.
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