Marco Polo

If his Hollywood career stalled a bit, an actor like Rory CALHOUN (1922-1999) could still work in the Roman Cinecitta.

His performance as "Marco Polo" is certainly not one of the highlights of his career, but it certainly turned out to be a very respectable adventure film. He has made even greater films alongside Marilyn MONROE in "River of No Return" and under the direction of Sergio Leone in "Il colosso di Rodi". Not to mention the many westerns!

What is very impressive is that the star did not allow himself to be blackmailed with his criminal past in the 1950s, but instead informed the public himself. This is what is called civil courage.

I didn't expect much going in but I found myself quite enjoying it. Rory Calhoun really shines in this role as adventurer. He's just an immense amount of fun as Marco Polo. This is a lower budget Italian affair, but it's done very well with what they had available to them.

Everyone is able and plays their roles well. It's solid technically, with good pacing and editing. You could almost think of it as a B film version of an Indiana Jones movie. The sets and art direction are quite excellent too. Most surprising is that the people of Orient were treated quite respectfully in how they were portrayed give this was made in 1962.

It's definitely one I'll rewatch from time to time.

Someone obviously thought that the "Conqueror" (1956) wasn't a bad idea, so decided to assign B-movie stalwart Rory Calhoun the task of portraying the legendary Venetian explorer Marco Polo as he ventures into the Chinese empire. As history has rather defined the man, there is not a great deal of jeopardy to this story - it's all about the creative narrative, and that delivers us a perfectly enjoyable adventure film with plenty of Oriental mischief-making, plotting, intrigues - a smattering of gunpowder, and a little romance with the dazzling Princess "Amurroy" (Yôko Tani) who is daughter of the all-powerful Kublai Khan (Camillo Pilotto). It is an Italian production, but that doesn't seem to have added much authenticity to this - it is still a relatively low budget affair that centres around a star who really wasn't big enough to carry the role (if not the part) leaving us with, well, just a little too little. That said, it's watchable on a the telly on wet afternoon, just be aware - historians need probably not bother.

Colorful but lackluster peplum version (a measure of its clumsiness is the fact that a sarcastic narrator is heard intermittently during the film's initial stages, but after a while he's all but forgotten!), in which a good deal of the detail is identical to the equally fictitious 1938 film: Marco Polo falls for Kublai Khan's daughter, Khan's evil lieutenant - played to the hilt by Robert Hundar - is planning to usurp the throne and marry the princess himself, our hero befriends a band of rebels and leads them - in explosive fashion - into the city, etc. Still, it's not hard to see how Rory Calhoun here is even less suited to the requirements of the role, though he's even more of a ladies' man than Gary Cooper!

In itself, the film is harmless enough but since an even more elaborate (if no more successful) version - the star-studded MARCO THE MAGNIFICENT (1965) - was just behind the corner, this one feels quite redundant; that said, its vast Chinese settings were re-used later for Riccardo Freda's silly hybrid SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961)!

I added the Italian poster to the gallery. Notice that there are 3 women on the left and Yoko Tani on the right. Rory Calhoun was involved with the 3 women on the left and was forced to leave Venice after his playing around became dangerous for him. You can see all three women in the Spanish version and Rory's interaction with them. In the USA release we see only one of the women before Marco Polo heads out on his eastern journey. In the Blu-Ray release they show 2 women only. The rest of the English language movie is the same as the Spanish version. I have also posted a still showing the blonde Thea Fleming in a line-up with the other women Marco Polo has to choose from. That is the only scene Thea Fleming has in the movie. Look at the half-sheet (22x28), poster in the gallery. They chose that scene to include on the poster even though it was such a minor bit in the story. The sets constructed for MARCO POLO were later used for SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD with Gordon Scott. I have added 7 stills to the gallery for fans to enjoy.

I saw the American International, English version on a triple bill in the 1960s. I just watched the Kino Lorber, Blu-Ray version and found it to be very entertaining and a great clear print. However, there is a very small scene of a sword, sticking out of the lone Mongol, who ran off with Yoko Tani. I guess the editors thought that scene was to gory for 1961. Also, Lex Baxter name was not mentioned, even though this is the Italian/English release, his name would have been known to fans. There has never been a video release of this movie in English, that I have been able to find, but a few in Spanish.

Does anyone know the name of the actress who plays Marietta? I visited Rory Calhoun's vacation villa in Acapulco, Mexico in 1979. His movie posters were plastered all over the adobe walls. Larry Anderson.