The General Died at Dawn is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets and directed by Lewis Milestone.

Plot

General Yang, a warlord with control of one of China's twelve provinces, plans to overtake them all with his army to corner the markets of silk, rice, and opium. However, the opposition in General Wu knows that Yang is lacking in enough men to hinder any chance of invasion, complete with desertion in certain numbers minus the most loyal. As such, Wu searches out for O'Hara, a soldier of fortune, to go to Shanghai to buy weapons from a gunrunner in Brighton that is selling to the first bidder. The money is kept in a belt that was funded by peasants under the oppression of Yang. In the way of all of this is the Perrie family, made up of Peter and his daughter Judy. Peter is dying soon and plans to take some of the money so Judy can see America. She reluctantly goes with her father's plan to distract O'Hara while Yang makes his way across the train to capture him in order to buy the weapons.