Dragon Seed ** (1944, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Turhan Bey, Aline MacMahon, Akim Tamiroff, Hurd Hatfield, Agnes Moorehead) – Classic Movie Review 8813

MGM’s 1944 propaganda drama film Dragon Seed is a failed bid to film the hit Pearl S Buck novel about the Chinese being forced to cope with Japanese invaders. It stars a miscast Katharine Hepburn, and it is strange to see her struggling so much.

Directors Jack Conway and Harold S Bucquet’s 1944 wartime propaganda drama film Dragon Seed is MGM’s failed bid to film the hit 1942 Pearl S Buck novel about the Chinese being forced to cope with Japanese invaders. It stars a formidable crew of Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Turhan Bey, Aline MacMahon, Akim Tamiroff, Hurd Hatfield and Agnes Moorehead, but by and large these are the wrong stars.

Before World War Two, a peaceful Chinese village is invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The men of the village adopt a peaceful attitude to the Japanese, but the headstrong heroic young Jade Tan (Hepburn) stands up to them, whether her husband Lao Er (Turhan Bey) approves or not, and leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against the invaders.

Dragon Seed is over-long and patchy – and politically incorrect. Today, the normally excellent American actors (such as Walter Huston as farmer Ling Tan, Aline MacMahon as Ling Tan’s Wife, and Hurd Hatfield as Lao San Tan, Ling Tan’s Youngest Son) seem very unsuitably cast, and Katharine Hepburn as Jade Tan, the wife of Lao Er, Ling Tan’s middle son (Turhan Bey), is particularly uncomfortable, killing off a whole Japanese garrison dressed in her New York pyjamas. Hepburn’s accent, makeup, wig and scenes with Turhan Bey are all deeply uncomfortable. She is miscast in so many ways. It is strange to see her struggling so much.

At the time the American film studios did not cast Chinese actors to play Chinese in major roles and so 1944 audiences would have accepted this, but now it is very hard to overlook the casting. Nevertheless, there are some good scenes and notable performances (Hepburn apart), if you can accept the casting. There are a few oriental players in the film, such as Philip Ahn, Benson Fong, Harold Fong, Lee Tong Foo, Wing Foo, Paul Fung, Charles Lung, Robert Lee, Frank Eng, Johnny Dong, Richard Wang, Victor Wong and Lee Tung Foo, but only in smaller, uncredited parts.

Patriarch Ling Tang (Huston) and his family live on his prosperous farm in rural Southern China but they are under imminent threat as the Japanese have invaded the North. Ling Tang’s two eldest sons, Lao Ta Tan and (Robert Bice) Lao Er Tan (Turhan Bey) are married and hard working, while the youngest son Lao San Tan (Hurd Hatfield) is a free spirit, as is Lao Er’s wife Jade. Tang’s only daughter (Jacqueline deWit) is married to city merchant Wu Lien (Akim Tamiroff), who sells Japanese goods.

Ling Tan (Huston) eventually accepts the wickedness of the Japanese and takes to the Chinese resistance in the hills after he organises the local farmers to burn all their farms and crops. The film is narrated by Lionel Barrymore.

It was advertised as ‘M-G-M’s immortal production of the great novel’ but history is not on its side, and it is almost totally forgotten, proving mortal after all. It was, however, nominated for two Oscars: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Aline MacMahon) and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Sidney Wagner).

Ling Tan to Jade: ‘Remember, my child, that the woman is the root and the man is the tree. The tree grows only as high as the root is strong.’

Also in the cast are Frances Rafferty, Henry Travers (as Third Cousin), J Carrol Naish, Robert Lewis, Robert Bice (as Lao Ta Tan, Ling Tan’s Eldest Son), Jacqueline deWit, Clarence Lung, Paul E Burns, Leonard Mudie, Abner Biberman, Philip Ahn, Benson Fong, Jay Novello, Philip Van Zandt, Frank Puglia, Leonard Strong, Anna Demetrio, Ted Hecht, Charles Lung, Al Hill, J Alex Havier, Roland Gott, Robert Lee, Claire DuBrey and Lee Tung Foo.

Dragon Seed is directed by Jack Conway and Harold S Bucquet, runs 147 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Marguerite Roberts and Jane Murfin, based on the Pearl S Buck novel, shot in black and white (sepiatone) by Sidney Wagner, produced by Pandro S Berman, scored by Herbert Stothart, and designed by Cedric Gibbons and Lyle R Wheeler.

Release date July 20, 1944.

Made on a high budget of $3 million, it took  $4.6 million as the box office, but lost MGM $281,000.

Harold S Bucquet took over as director when Jack Conway fell ill in January 1944 and was awarded co-director credit.

Allegedly, Judy Garland was the first choice as Jade, and second choice Hedy Lamarr was replaced by Katharine Hepburn.

Robert Lewis plays Japanese Captain Sato and was also the screen test director and dialogue director. He was  co-founder of the Actors Studio and Meryl Streep’s teacher at the Yale Drama School.

It is the film debut of Hurd Hatfield. He became lifelong friends with Angela Lansbury when they made The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) together,

Hepburn followed it with the safety of a film with Spencer Tracy, Without Love (1945).

The cast are Katharine Hepburn as Jade, Walter Huston as Ling Tan, Aline MacMahon as Ling Tan’s Wife, Akim Tamiroff as Wu Lien, Turhan Bey as Lao Er Tan, Hurd Hatfield as Lao San Tan, J Carrol Naish as Japanese kitchen overseer, Agnes Moorehead as third cousin’s wife, Henry Travers as third cousin, Robert Bice as Lao Ta Tan, Robert Lewis as Captain Sato, Frances Rafferty as Orchid Tan, Leonard Strong as a Japanese Official, Jacqueline deWit as Wu Lien’s wife, Clarence Lung as fourth cousin, Paul E Burns as Neighbour Shen, Anna Demetrio as Wu Sao, Leonard Mudie, Abner Biberman, Philip Ahn, Benson Fong, Jay Novello, Philip Van Zandt, Frank Puglia, Leonard Strong, Ted Hecht, Charles Lung, Al Hill, J Alex Havier, Roland Gott, Robert Lee, Claire DuBrey and Lee Tung Foo, and Lionel Barrymore as the narrator.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8813

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