Summary
In the feverish, slapstick-laden landscape of 1927, Broke in China emerges as a surrealist exercise in silent comedy, centered on the inimitable Ben Turpin. Donald Drake, a man whose professional history includes the unlikely transition from soda jerk to deep-sea gondolier, washes up in Shanghai with nothing but his crossed eyes and a lack of prospects. He finds himself at the All Nation Cafe, a den of opportunistic schemes run by a proprietor who smells poverty on Drake from a mile away. However, a sudden windfall shifts the power dynamics, prompting the owner to deploy Maud and Mollie—two American 'good time girls'—to separate the hapless Drake from his new fortune. What follows is a narrative that hinges on the absurdity of Drake’s romantic past, a lost blonde love, and a literal turn of the wheel. The film uses the chaotic energy of the international settlement in Shanghai as a backdrop for a series of escalating physical gags, culminating in a roulette sequence where sheer incompetence translates into a life-altering victory.
Synopsis
Donald Drake, a deep sea gondolier ex soda jerk, arrives at the All Nation Cafe in Shanghai. The proprietor believes he's a penniless ne'er-do-well - which he is - but he unexpectedly comes into a small windfall. So the proprietor orders slightly rough around the edges Maud and Mollie, two of his American good time girls working their way around the world, to get him to spend all his money while there. As Donald ends up telling the two good time girls his life story - most specifically about the blonde he let slip through his fingers, she who was the love of his life - a few revelations and the errant coin he left at the roulette wheel betting table change his life.
