Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jacobs-greenwood Six foot, three inch Gary Cooper standing upright and passing through the palace guards undetected among the Chinese peasants (e.g. pretending to be a Chinaman himself) isn't the only unbelievable moment in this fictionalized biography of the great Venetian explorer.According to Robert Sherwood's screenplay, or N.A. Pogson's story, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by Archie Mayo, Marco Polo (with help from Kaidu, played by Alan Hale) actually saved China, rescuing emperor Kublai Khan (George Barbier), and his daughter Princess Kukachin (Sigrid Gurie), from his own ambitious adviser Ahmed (Basil Rathbone), as well as bringing spaghetti and coal to Italy.Apparently Polo also discovered that the gunpowder China used to burn bright for celebrations and make firecrackers (as toys) could be also be utilized on a larger scale for weaponry (e.g. to blow up gates or bring down walls). Since historians question the facts surrounding this famed, mid-to-late 13th century trader-explorer, I'll not comment further on the validity of such claims.In the film, Ernest Truex plays Polo's traveling companion and bookkeeper Binguccio, Binnie Barnes plays Kaidu's wife Nazama, H.B. Warner plays the native Chen Tsu who helps Polo, Ferdinand Gottschalk the Persian Ambassador, Harold Huber plays Toctai, the assassin Ahmed sends to kill Kaidu, and Lana Turner plays Nazama's maid, who's coveted by Kaidu.Because his son is young and popular with the ladies (his disarming good looks?), Nicolo Polo (Henry Kolker) and some Venetian businessmen decide to send Marco (Cooper) to the East to establish trade agreements. First he travels by ship, but when it's wrecked by a storm, he and Binguccio (Truex) continue on foot through the desert and then the mountains of Tibet to China. He meets Chen Tsu and his humble family and learns that the emperor's adviser Ahmed (Rathbone) is not to be trusted.After his introduction by his father's letter, Marco quickly earns Kublai Khan's (Barbier) admiration when he helps to sort the emperor's concubine women, culling out the guessers and those who are too smart. Later, Marco is smitten with the Princess Kukachin (Gurie), to whom he introduces the Western custom of kissing, even though she's betrothed to the King of Persia. Lotus Liu plays the Princess's handmaiden Visahka. When Ahmed learns of it, he's threatened such that he convinces Khan to send Polo to a troublesome, overtaxed province to spy on its leader Kaidu. Ahmed orders Bayan (Stanley Fields) to kill the Venetian en-route; he reports back that he'd succeeded, prematurely.But Marco is captured by Kaidu's (Hale), though he's saved from execution by Kaidu's instantly smitten wife Nazama (Barnes). Kaidu sees an opportunity to spend time with his wife's maid (Turner) while Nazama is distracted by Polo. Ahmed convinces Khan to go with his troops to conquer Japan and is pleased to learn that the emperor's fleet was lost at sea. He decides that the Princess will be his wife, but she sends a warning by air (a hawk?) to Marco; conveniently, it's intercepted (shot down) by Kaidu's men.Marco insists that he must go, but is delayed by Kaidu. Marco then recognizes that Ahmed's assassin Toctai (Huber) has become entrusted as one of Kaidu's men. He plots Kaidu's assassination, but only in order to save the rebel leader and expose Toctai. This earns Marco the privilege of returning to the emperor's palace, where Khan himself had returned to find that Ahmed had the Princess in a precarious position, tied down under his vultures. This forced Khan to sign away his power and become Ahmed's puppet.Marco's first stop in Beijing is Chen Tsu's humble home, where he orders and/or commandeers all the flash power (e.g. gunpowder) for the wedding celebration between Ahmed and the Princess to create bombs capable of bringing down the palace gates. When Kaidu and his men arrive, Marco tells Kaidu the obvious (e.g. that his men should attack the gate tower), helping the rebels to take the palace so that Marco can rescue the Princess.The explorer is somehow adept enough to take on Ahmed singlehandedly and overpower him such that he falls into his own den of lions, where he's killed. A grateful King asks Marco to escort the Princess to Persia, a trip assured of being a long one (e.g. to the kissing partners delight).

dbborroughs Gary Cooper goes from Italy to China in a manner that only old Hollywood could manage with make believe sets and white actors pretending to be Asian. The plot has Coper being sent from Venice to China by his father in order to open up lucrative trade with the far Eastern country. In true Hollywood style its a radical rewrite of what actually happened, but then gain Polo's story was a Puff piece in its own right so I'm guessing turn about is fair play. Cooper, a good actor in the right part, is completely out of place as Polo. He looks more like a western star in dress up then a Venetian merchant.The rest of cast doesn't fair much better, but at least there is the joy of knowing that everyone is in the same boat. Perhaps this all would have worked better if there had been something approaching real sets and not so much rear screen projection. An amusing movie that walks the fine line between being fun on its own terms and camp, the film is enjoyable for what it is, a (wrongheaded) Hollywood epic of the old school. Taken for what it is you'll have a good time. Taken on anything other than its own terms you're in for a laugh fest. Worth seeing at least once.

edwagreen The above statement is what one critic referred to when the film came out in 1938.It is simply an awful amateurish-like production by Samuel Goldwyn. Mr. Goldwyn produced an absolute bomb here in his depiction of Polo (Gary Cooper) going to China.By the way, with the exception of a map stating Cathay, ancient Cathay is referred to as China in this film. Who did the research for Mr. Goldwyn here, the 3 stooges?The acting is just awful. Gary Cooper comes across like a western star and Sigrid Gurie, his leading lady, must have thought she was doing a poor imitation of Luise Rainer in "The Good Earth."You know you're in for it when Ernest Truex, the bookkeeper, goes singing "Marco Polo" on a gondola at the beginning of the film.Alan Hale and Binnie Barnes play leaders in western China where the Kublai Khan sends them to. The Khan, played by a fellow by the last name of Barbier, sounds like a Brooklyn or Bronx truck man. Barnes and Hale are completely unfaithful to each other.Basil Rathbone, as evil as ever as the horrible Ahmed, minister to the khan, even looks disgusted and rightfully so by all this.H.B. Warner provides the firecrackers, spaghetti and gun powder for all this.Goldwyn lost a bundle on this mess and rightfully so. Since Technicolor was sparingly used in 1937, the film did not have it. It would not have helped.

wuxmup You either get it or you don't. Like most studio films, this movie was intended to make money by providing one thing - entertainment. Not a history lesson, not social commentary. Entertainment. Like the better realized but equally fake-medieval "Adventures of Robin Hood," released the same year (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (note the similar title) provides plenty of entertainment in the comedy-adventure genre that eventually led to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Evaluating either "Raiders" or "Marco Polo" on its historical accuracy misses the point. It's like asking how Marco is able to speak what must be flawless Mandarin, plus the language of Alan Hale's presumably Turkic people. If you gotta ask, the movie just isn't your style.Cooper looks a little less comfortable in this role than in some others, but he's adequately wry and intrepid, never taking the role of Marco too seriously. The rarely-seen Sigrid Gurie, whose face reminds one of Garbo, even through the Asian makeup, is beautiful and ethereal as the daughter of Kublai, played with Midwestern folksiness by the affable George Barbier. (Remember, it's not supposed to be real.) As Kublai's evil vizier, Basil Rathbone emanates the same elegant menace as he did in the role of Sir Guy in "Robin Hood." The ubiquitous Alan Hale, Sr., plays his usual self, and if you look carefully you'll see teenybopper Lana Turner in a small but fully credited role.Why aren't there any Chinese here in leading roles? Because first, the studio had big-name actors on contract and meant to use their box-office appeal to make a bundle. Second, despite the potentially impressive Asian-American talent pool in California no greed-driven executive would have counted on white audiences in 1938 to shell out Depression-era cash to watch Asian unknowns acting the leads in for-profit motion picture. "The Adventures of Marco Polo" is not "The Last Emperor," and it doesn't pretend to be. Nor is it a misconceived turkey like John Wayne's Mongol epic "The Conqueror" (1961). Instead it's only a great "family film" and simple adventurous fun in the pulp-magazine tradition.