Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
Movie tag line: "This is the heroic story of the men on the U.S.S. San Pablo who disturbed the sleeping dragon of savage China as the threatened world watched in breathless terror."
Production companies:
Character: Jake Holman
Character: Frenchy Burgoyne
Character: Captain Collins
Character: Shirley Eckert
Character: Po-han
Character: Jameson
Character: Ensign Bordelles
Character: Stawski
Character: Harris
Character: Bronson
Character: Crosley
Character: Shanahan
Character: Major Chin
Character: Franks
Character: Victor Shu
Character: Restorff
Character: Maily
Character: Perna
Character: Farren
Character: Jennings
Character: Cho-jen
Character: Chien
Character: Mama Chunk
Character: Haythorn
Character: Wilsey
Character: Lamb
Character: Wellbeck
Character: Coleman
Character: Waldron
Character: Bosun's Mate (uncredited)
Character: Officer on San Pablo (uncredited)
Character: Bidder at Red Kettle Bar (uncredited)