The Adventures of Marco Polo
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Basil Rathbone, Binnie Barnes, Gary Cooper, George Barbier, Sigrid GurieBrand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.37:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of The Adventures of Marco Polo
Movie Review: When it gets that bad, it's so GOOD that it needs to be seen, at all costs
Summary: 5 Stars
Nothing can prepare you for this film. From the quantities of plastic that overwhelms the architecture to the Mme Butterfly make up on Sigrid Gurie, from the Deco thrones that look out of a starlet's living room to the Mexican desperadoes posing as Tartar guards, while wearing what could only be described as primitive space travel gear. This whole production is a delightful plunge into the nether world of pseudo-history and really sick fantasies about the Orient that would be too politically incorrect to even imagine now, as a bad dream.
Gary Cooper looks absolutely ridiculous in his Venetian costume from the first shot. This is probably one of the biggest miscast mistakes in Holywwod's record, but the horrid version of Venice that is depicted here is bad even by Vegas standards, and it includes every single one of Cooper's outfits each one outdoing the last as the worst. I am not going to elaborate on the weird growth of hair at the back of his head that looks like a mix between a junior toreador and a punk-in-training. More annoying than the outfit is his swaggering presence that looks completely out of synch with the scenes, sort of what we could expect from Dolly Parton playing Marie Antoinette.There are a series of hollering shouts from attendants and 'broads' searching for Marco Polo in the first scene, all over the fake Venice, when he is summoned by his uncles that almost transposed the entire situation to the tacky glories of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, all women are wearing polyester nightgowns and the men look so ridiculous it gives the impression of mardi gras in Alaska .The trip to Asia takes 15 minutes, maybe seven, but it actually does not matter, when they get there the plastic morphs into pseudo-China-exotica in seconds and we're at some strange place between China and Japan by way of Long Island Chinese restaurants' decor.
Basil Rathbone is the "Evil" Ahmed, vizier. He is his usual professional evil self and traitor to George Barbier's ridiculously homy Kublai Khan that is much more familiar with Archie Bunker's delicious vulgarity, style and mannerisms than with any Imperial court anywhere in history, and that includes the kitchen and toilet areas.
The only reason to watch this tragic comedy is to see Lana Turner in the role of Nazama's maid. She is sassy, gorgeous and obviously delighted with the weirdness of her outfit and surroundings. Sigrid Gurie is her counterpart in characterization: A vapid, limp, and vacuous princess that can not be understood except as a product of princely inbreeding. She is constantly smelling flowers or on the verge of fainting and can never concentrate to do either properly. One regrets that she is not devoured by the vultures that Ahmed had prepared for her, as she would have done a much better characterization as a sweet and sour pork dish.
Not to be missed for the sociological/anthropological study of Hollywood's vile portrayal of foreign cultures, which at this point is much more inaccurate, condescending and prejudiced than it ever was during the silent era.
Summary of The Adventures of Marco Polo
Marco Polo travels from Venice to Peking where he quickly discovers spaghetti and gunpowder and falls in love with the Emperor's daughter. The Emperor Kublai Khan is a kindly fellow but his evil aide Ahmed wants to get rid of Kublai Khan so he can be emperor and to get rid of Marco Polo so he can marry the princess. Ahmed sends Marco Polo to the West to fight barbarians but he returns just in time to save the day.Run Time: 100 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616075116 Manufacturer No: M107513Gary Cooper makes a dashing, flirtatious explorer-adventurer in The Adventures of Marco Polo, a twinkling account of Polo's 13th century travels from his home in Venice to China, where he established a new east-west trade route. Nothing comes easy, of course, so the film's script (by author Robert E. Sherwood) finds playboy Polo barely surviving his journey only to be sabotaged in his efforts to forge a relationship with emperor Kublai Khan (George Barbier). Polo?s rival for Khan's loyalty (and the affections of the emperor's daughter, played by the exotic Sigrid Gurie) is the scheming Ahmed (Basil Rathbone), who has the ruler's ear and is wont to punish enemies by chaining them down for the benefit of hungry vultures. The story's general outrageousness extends to Polo?s banishment to a tribe of rebels, led by a henpecked strongman (Alan Hale) whose shrewish wife takes a shine to the Venetian stud and saves him from execution. Directed by Archie Mayo (The Petrified Forest), The Adventures of Marco Polo is glossy fun, led by Cooper's charming, knowing performance and highlighted by the film?s unwillingness to take anything too seriously. Scenes in which Polo is introduced to two Chinese inventions--spaghetti and gunpowder--are priceless. --Tom Keogh
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