Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Brucey D Crikey, what a film! You can just imagine the planning meetings; "yeah, we'll have Gary Cooper as Marco Polo, there'll be adventure, beautiful girls, romance, action, all set in the mystic east, it's gonna be GREAT...".Except it wasn't. The pacing is uneven, the film lacks realism, lacks historical accuracy, Cooper is miscast, and even as entertainment the film is somewhat lacking. All this applies by the standards of the time, not just in retrospect: When the film was released, after a troubled production, the audience voted with their feet and stayed away; the film lost a fortune. Often films that don't do well at the time are viewed more kindly in hindsight, but not this one; it is very patchy indeed.Gary Cooper does his best but you can see his heart is not in it; if he too had been made up to look 'oriental' then it could have been an epic miscast on a par with John Wayne in 'the Conqueror' two decades later. As it is, it isn't quite as bad as that. Watching this film was interesting for me in other ways. One thing that struck me was that the shot of our hero narrowly avoiding plunging into a chasm (screen left) was a dead ringer for a shot in the final Indiana Jones film; both appear to have been done using a matte of the chasm and if anything, the 1938 matte looks more realistic. So much for progress!Another thing that struck me was that the 1980 film 'Flash Gordon' contains many of the plot elements seen here, albeit rearranged somewhat. One can only suppose that there was some, uh, 'inspiration' from this film. However whilst in Flash Gordon they went for 'camp' in an absolutely shameless fashion, and reviewers here have tarred this film with the camp brush too, I don't think it was ever meant that way. It might perhaps have been a better film if they had.For me, the one standout in this film is Basil Rathbone; he really did make an excellent bad guy! Another film around this time also saw him playing a 'bad Guy', literally; Guy of Gisborne, in Robin Hood, a well-remembered role. Arguably he only narrowly avoided being eternally typecast as a bad guy by being eternally typecast as Sherlock Holmes instead. It could have been worse I suppose; although Rathbone fought against this Holmes association for many years he eventually came to embrace it.There are other small roles of interest in this film such as Lana Turner's, but for the most part this film is today little more than a slightly puzzling period piece. It isn't actually awful to watch, but this 'rock' burned nearly everyone involved.

jjnxn-1 Worthless as biography and not even much of a Gary Cooper adventure film but on a camp level there is entertainment value here. You would think with a tale as rich as Polo's they wouldn't have to fabricate an almost entirely false one but such was Hollywood film making in the 30's. All the obviously Caucasian women are made up with Jean Harlow eyebrows and dark makeup not for one instance being convincingly oriental. About those eyebrows: within the cast in a small role about an hour in is Lana Turner as a maid/concubine, to prepare her for the role the makeup department shaved off her eyebrows and they never grew back! It wasn't worth the sacrifice she is no more convincing than anybody else. Most absurd is the usually reliable Alan Hale who looks preposterous. There is nothing wrong with his performance except its one that would feel right at home in a western but he is supposed to be a Mongol warlord, so authentic it is not. Sigrid Gurie, the Siren of the Fjords as she was billed but who was actually born in Flatbush, doesn't make much of an impression as the romantic interest. Binnie Barnes tries to inject some life into the picture and have some fun with her role as Alan Hale's wife but is likewise handicapped by her makeup. Gary Cooper does not look at all like a traveling merchant in the 13th century but like Gary Cooper of course, oddly that's one of the films strengths since even when faced with the unlikely sight of Basil Rathbone as Ahmed a Mongol villain Coop is there to remind you that this is a vehicle for its star and little else.

ccmiller1492 This could be the silliest in a long line of silly Marco Polo films.... firstly, casting Gary Cooper as an Italian of any century, let alone the 13th century, ranks with casting Katharine Hepburn as a Chinese peasant. (in Dragon Seed) In the opening scenes the Venetians are planning to open China to their ships (by what route is a mystery, since Columbus was still looking for a sea route to the east in 1492.) Marco arrives in a China that never was...its imposing 1930's art deco buildings and interiors bearing no resemblance whatsoever to actual Chinese architecture or decor of any century. Altogether, this is an annoying film and only has the wonderful Basil Rathbone's gleefully vicious and totally fictitious role to recommend it. Of all the Polo treatments I think probably the Ken Marshall TV series version may be the best. Of all the actor's playing the role, surprisingly Rory Calhoun both looked and acted the part most convincingly. The Horst Bucholz "Kublai Khan" film is fairly good in some respects but just as goofy as this one in others. I for one am still awaiting a film treatment that does his fascinating story justice...it might be a future project for Mel Gibson, who seems to have a good feel for historical screen epics.

sxct Stunned, surprised, confused, amazed. All adjectives that ran through my mind while watching this trash.Gary Cooper was one of the best actors Hollywood has ever had. What happened here is beyond comprehension. I am amazed that he not only chose to do this script, but put in the lack of effort he did. Sleepwalk is to pay him a compliment.As for Alan Hale, one of the great character actors in movie history, was so miscast that its laughable. Imagine an actor with a slight Irish accent playing a Chinese war lord. To say it didn't work is to compliment the effort.If you get a chance to see this movie, consider a bad book instead. I think you will be spending your time more wisely.