Marco Polo

It's Marco Polo.It could well be Tarzan,Robin Hood,Zorro or James West.That is to say how much the plot is poor.This Italian /French production casts old Hollywood veteran Calhoun("river of no return") as the hero who leaves his native Venice for the broader horizons of Asia .A childish plot pits Marco against a villain who wants to dethrone the emperor of China and marry his daughter (who's in love with...well ,check the title).This infamous character has invented a torture Amnesty International would not allow:some kind of blade which gets closer to the face at every breath you take and it's the princess's turn!

In the sixties ,another "Marco Polo " was made (aka "Marco Polo the magnificent") circa 1965 directed by Noel Howard which was as fanciful as Fregonese's ,but was at least entertaining and featured a topflight cast who was probably in it for the money:Orson Welles,Akim Tamiroff,Robert Hossein,Horst Buchholz,Elsa Martinelli,etc.

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.

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.

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 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.