Cooper v. Chinese Warlords

The General Died At Dawn (1936) An Action Oddity Gary Cooper continually exposes himself to mortal danger for no reason other that his love of democracy, so he says, and often, in The General Died at Dawn, a lethal dose of Clifford Odets as screenwriter and recent Communist Party member. Didn't he realize that soldiers of fortune were supposed to be after fortunes first, maybe a woman next, then revenge or something or other past that, with principles perhaps at end of a long motivating list? Audiences were plenty cynical enough, more than enough by the mid-30's, to know that self-interest guides us all, let alone ones that hire out to Chinese peasants wanting to rid themselves of warlords. Cooper seems a chump for all time with his speechifying on behalf of downtrodden we hardly see, let alone get to know or care about. Still, being Cooper, there's at least dangle of Madeleine Carroll to keep him in an otherwise sucker's game, something to thank her for more than Odets. Would the…