

"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."
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.
Jake Holman

Frenchy Burgoyne

Captain Collins

Shirley Eckert

Po-han

Jameson

Ensign Bordelles

Stawski

Harris

Bronson

Crosley

Shanahan
Major Chin

Franks

Victor Shu

Restorff
Maily

Perna
Farren

Jennings
Cho-jen

Chien
Mama Chunk

Haythorn
Wilsey
Lamb
Wellbeck
Coleman

Waldron

Bosun's Mate (uncredited)
Officer on San Pablo (uncredited)

Bidder at Red Kettle Bar (uncredited)
