It's set in China between the wars, with warlords despoiling the villages. Cooper plays an adventurer and soldier-of-fortune, hired by one faction to get a money belt to Shanghai to buy guns to fight the warlords, particularly Akim Tamiroff. Working against him will be Porter Hall, a weaselly gambler with a beautiful daughter, Madeleine Carroll. He convinces Carroll to cozy up to Cooper on the train to Shanghai, and help relieve him of his belt.
So there is a pretty hot scene on the Shanghai train between the two - although it's a little confusing, because Cooper and Hall both assumed he couldn't go by train, and Cooper and Carroll are strangers or had met before, depending. I'm chalking this up to Odets.
Also, Tamiroff and his men take over the train, take the money and give it to Hall to take to Shanghai. So Carroll was not needed for this caper. Also, Tamiroff decides to take Cooper to Shanghai by boat - so Hall isn't needed either. Tamiroff likes Cooper - they are old frenemies and get to do that smooth villain/hot-headed good guy banter thing.
I'll leave off here, except to mention that the arms dealer they are all trying to rendezvous with is William Frawley (Fred Mertz). He spends most of his screen time fulminating or drunk.
This is all directed by Lewis Milestone, with a little more panache than you might expect. There are a few neat match cuts, and the harbor full of junks is quite romantic. Also, there were a lot more Asians playing Chinese than you would expect, although Akim Tamiroff as a warlord and Dudley Diggs as Cooper's Chinese sponsor get the slant-eye makeup treatment - the first use of foam rubber makeup appliances (eyelid folds), according to the internet.
Milestone had a long career, starting with All Quiet on the Western Front, continuing through Ocean's 11 and Mutiny on the Bounty. I will definitely check out some more of these.
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