AllMovie

Richard Dix stars as a heroic riverboat captain in this lurid action-melodrama produced under the aegis of David O. Selznick. Trapped at a hotel in a Mandarin town under siege, a group of Occidentals turn to alcoholic riverboat captain Chauncey Carson (Dix) for help. Among the besieged are Helen (Arline Judge), an American entertainer; her admirer, Busby (Edward Everett Horton); a German doctor (William Orlamond); Carson's cowardly boss, Johnson (Dudley Digges); and Natascha (Gwili Andre), a Russian whom everybody takes for a spy. Carson, who has a long history with Voronsky (C. Henry Gordon) and his Tartar bandits, manages to keep the attackers at bay while at the same time romances the mysterious Natascha, who is no spy after all. A machine gun manned by a self-sacrificing Busby eventually decides the outcome in favor of the westerners, who manage to escape on Carson's riverboat.