Les aventuriers du bout du monde

Drama, funny, & veteran character actors out the kazoo. Robert Morley (rest his soul) is great as the malicious bumbling nemesis, & Wilford Brimley is letter-perfect as the eccentric good-guy geezer. Jack Weston is stellar as sidekick, Brian Blessed is appropriately malevolent as Suleman Khan, & Timothy Bateson is 1st-rate as Morley's sniveling toady. All of this is overshadowed (but not over the top) by the absolutely perfect chemistry between Selleck & Armstrong, though. Yeah, sure, the conceit of the snotty-rich-girl-drives-the-heart-of-gold-tough-guy-crazy love story has been done to death, but never executed quite like this. These two make an on-screen couple at the level of Bogey/Bacall, Fred/Ginger, & George/Gracie.

Selleck's charisma normally dominates other actors' presence; Armstrong more than holds her own, which is saying a lot for any actress, much less one not on the A-list. The cinematography is exceptionally well-done. All in all, this is one seriously underrated flick, & a movie I'd buy in a heartbeat if it ever became available on DVD, which sadly I doubt it ever will. :(

A drunk previous WWI pilot (Tom Selleck) and his underling (Jack Weston) are hired by a young heiress (Bess Armstrong) who must encounter her dad before her contender (Robert Morley) takes over the inheritance . They will face dangerous bandits (Brian Blessed) , numerous adventures and risks .

This exciting story gets an agreeable look and feeling to vintage adventures , exotic places , dastardly nasties and daring getaways than ever before . Packs action enough with explosion galore , especial aerial effects with impressive images of flight and dogfighting , comedy , tongue usefully in in its check , all that make it a cinematic roller coater ride . It's made like a classic's 30s-style adventure reminiscent of early serials and in the wake of ¨Raiders of the last ark¨ . Tom Selleck is a hard-drinking former air ace , he's a dashing and intrepid pilot , Bess Armstrong is perfectly cast as feisty heiress looking for his father , she's continuously irritated with the smooth talker and alcoholic adventurer . Both of whom play a special love story in a screwball-romance style . Besides , displaying spectacular images of Selleck and Armstrong gliding over extraordinary landscapes with musical background by John Barry , perhaps copied by Sidney Pollack in ¨Out of Africa¨ with the couple Redford and Meryl Streep , flying in similar plane and soundtrack . Regular cinematography by Ronnie Taylor filmed in Yugoslavia and England, the colors are worn-out , it's necessary an urgent remastering . The film was lavishly produced by Fred Weintraub and Raymond Chow , producers of ¨Operation Dragon¨ starred by Bruce Lee . This was 27th highest grossing film of 1983 at the American box-office . The picture was frequently considered by the film-going public as being a rip-off to Raiders of the lost ark (1981) when in fact the movie had been in development since the late 1970s , formerly the famous Spielberg adventure.

The film was well handled and professionally directed by Brian G Hutton, however was a flop and failed to give cash . Hutton started his career with little and prestigious films , such as ¨Wild seed¨ and ¨The Pad¨. There after , he veered off into big budgeted and all-star movies, proving which he could handle big scale production , as ¨Where the eagles dare¨, one of the best from Alistair McLean , furthermore with ¨Kelly's heroes¨ added humor to the warlike action . His next picture was ¨High road to China¨ marked a partial return with panache to his previous form but faltered at the Box-office , in spite of being quite amusing and with occasional touch of directorial skill, for that reason is a must for adventure buffs .

While true that this movie isn't Academy Award material, it is very enjoyable and touchingly romantic. The scenery is breathtaking at times and the film flows well. It starts in a party atmosphere and becomes a romantic adventure story. It is a good cross between a "Chick Flick" and an adventure story. I have flown open cockpit biplanes and perhaps that makes the film even more enduring for me.

There is plenty of flying and small war skirmishes are smattered in with the search for a rich brat's father. She (Bess Armstrong as Eve Tozer) must find the father and get him to a British court before the deadline or she will lose all of her money. If the partner, Bentik, can have Bradley Tozer (Wilford Brimley) declared as dead in a British court then he gets the whole company; thus relieving Eve Tozer of the heaps of her fathers money. And it is about money that this girl lives for, or so it seems. She enlists the help of a derelict and decrepit old WW1 ace, Tom Selleck, who has the only two available airplanes to get her to her father in time. Assassins are employed by Bradley Tozers partner to keep him from being found adding more tension to the already danger filled trail.

While the romance angle is as predictable as it is in just about any film, the story does flow well and the scenery also helps to keep ones interest. Rent this one and settle down for some fun. I would rate this film as three out of four stars.

Given Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong, Wilford Brimley, Robert Morley, Brian Blessed, and Jack Weston, and a bunch of excellent aerial action scenes, this is a terrific film. So what if there isn't a great message, or outstanding drama. For what this is... a comedy-adventure... it's great. Tom and Bess have always been extremely watchable to me, and they continue that tradition here. A solid 9.

With tongue firmly in cheek Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong and the rest of the cast give us a spoof of all those old action/adventure flicks from the 30s and 40s. The film is set in Kuomintang China which has always been a good source for these films, a fluid political situation, a weak central government and a lot of warlords in business for themselves.

Industrialist Wilford Brimley has gone to Asia and vanished, but that hasn't stopped his daughter from spending his money like it had no end. But the end might be coming as his partner Robert Morley wants him declared legally dead and by terms of their partnership he gets control of the company and daughter Bess Armstrong is out in the cold. She might have to do like others do and actually go to work.

Heaven forfend so she hires former air ace Tom Selleck who comes with two World War I era biplanes and a mechanic played by Jack Weston. This partnership takes her to Afghanistan, Nepal, and finally the westernmost province of China Sinkiang in search of Brimley.

Along the way all the old clichés concerning these films is employed and of course chemistry cannot be denied. Selleck and Armstrong become an item and Selleck finds some use for his former aviation combat skills.

By the way I loved and I'm sure you'll love Brimley's explanation as to why Armstrong will be well taken care of despite efforts to the contrary.

Those efforts are being directed by Robert Morley who I can never resist seeing in any film. There's also a nice performance by Brian Blessed as an Afghan warlord.

Tom Selleck's fans should love High Road To China.