Dawn of the East on AllMovie

The stolid direction of Edward H. Griffith does little damage to the entertainment value of Dawn of the East. Alice Brady, best known to movie fans for her dithery society-lady roles in the 1930s, stars as a glamorous refugee from the Bolshevik revolution. Supporting herself and her ailing sister by dancing in a Shanghai dive, Alice is talked into a marriage with a wealthy Chinese gentleman. She has been led to believe that this marriage of convenience is not binding, thus she sees no reason not to marry American diplomat Kenneth Harlan once she's arrived in the States. But villainous Michio Itow soons shows up threatening to expose Brady's marital past. The price for Itow's silence is a packet of military secrets about the Chinese republic. But Itow has not counted on the essential decency of Brady's Chinese husband.