AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

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.

deng43 i sat down with good expectations - what wasn't to like? the mysterious orient, a fine cast, a capable director, odets at work on the script...let's start with the script: the lines he had to mouth over and over made cooper sound like an automated propaganda-doll getting its string pulled till it frayed. he was absolutely tiresome in his protestations of good intentions against a backdrop of evil times; i think it must be a feat to write lines that cooper couldn't make seem fresh, lines that he could dust with a laconic wit. i can only imagine that the agenda beneath all this was to lay bare the evils of the rapacious, fascist warlords for folks at home too depressed to much care about how someone else was also having troubles getting dinner on the table; the script certainly was making a wooden effort to go beyond mere entertainment and to politically educate. no subtlety, no finesse, no nuance was wasted on this script. where some dry wit, as in casablanca, might have told the tale we are treated to lectures. so, that is my complaint. i liked the actors. they certainly did their best with the material, but this ain't no 'for whom the bells toll' - and maybe it could have been.... don e.

Peter Fairburn There are better films than The General Died at Dawn; however, there are few films that make so much out of so little. The story itself is little more than fond manipulation of Asian stereotypes. Yet Lewis Milestone takes the material and in his hands, it becomes a cinematic jewel. Watch how the round features of a minor Chinese actor becomes a doorknob and then a billiard ball. Note how multi-imaging creates a visual record of the story being told. Watch how the stylized performances of Cooper and Carroll are used as foil for the larger-than-life storyline.Sure, there are better films than this. But there are very few better entertainments - a concept that Hollywood lost years ago and which is only now infiltrating the thick skulls of TV land.