Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
FloatingOpera7
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938): Gary Cooper, Basil Rathbone, Sigrid Gurie, George Barbier, Lana Turner, Binnie Barnes, Ernest Ruex, AlanHale, Ward Bond, H.B. Warner, Robert Greig, Henry Kolker, Lotus Liu, Harold Huber, Reginald Barlow, Harry Cording, Richard Farnsworth, Leo Fielding, Anne Graham, Hale Hamilton, Eugene Hoo, Greta Granstedt, Granville Bates.....Director Archie Mayo, Story by N.A. Pogson, Screenplay Robert. E. Sherwood.By 1938, Gary Cooper was as big a star in Hollywood as Clark Gable. Cooper's Western films always drew crowds. "The Adventures of Marco Polo" was a different type of film for him and originally, audiences did not flock to see it. Playing a historical figure, although with a heroic and fictional slant, this was a sort of a departure from his usual roles. He was paired with an actress who never made it big - European-born Sigrid Gurie. Basil Rathbone as the villain and a young, previously unknown Lana Turner as a maid. She would become famous in the 40's shortly after this film. The results are a highly entertaining adventure film that is not historically accurate. The real Marco Polo never behaved the way Cooper does in the movie, nor did he ever experience the type of encounters he has in this film. It was a trend in the 30's to show adventure films, escapist films and it had been this way since the start of the Depression. For such a film, this one is well worth viewing, especially if you're a fan of Gary Cooper or have an interest in classic films.1300's era Italian/Venetian explorer Marco Polo (Cooper) is assigned to explore China, namely the capital of Peking, the home of the Great Emperor Kublai Kan (Barbier). Italy hopes to make trade/commercial relations with China. Before long, Marco and his servant, carrying on his back, reach Peking and the Palace. Kan treats him hospitably. He discovers the beautiful Princess Kookoo-Chin (Gurie) who although engaged to marry the Prince of Persia, falls madly for Marco. Trouble arises when Marco is sent to dangerous enemy territory, as part of a carefully constructed plot by the Emperor's adviser Ahmed(played by Basil Rathbone). With Marco away, and shortly after the Emperor himself, Ahmed devises a plan to marry the Princess himself and usurp the throne of China. Will Marco be able to save China from this dastardly plot ? Will the Princess Koo-koo Chin and Maro have a happily ever after ? With exciting music, exotic costumes and sets (and yes this is a set picture) this type of film was a standard of most escapist adventures. Gary Cooper is no swashbuckler icon like Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn, who was in '38 at this time, the only swashbuckler icon, but he holds his own and does a marvelous job. It's part comedy, part romance, mostly adventure. It's sad to think that audiences did not seem to enjoy it. Now it's a wonderful reminder of an older form of cinema and a credit to the many acting styles of Hollywood star Gary Cooper.
salweir
Everyone is miscast: a Caucassian actress born in Brooklyn, herself billed as a "Norwegian beauty" cast as a weak sister Chinese princess; Alan Hale as the western Chinese rebel leader; Gary Cooper as Polo. This is an awful movie. High handed attempt to pass off a third rate piece of junk as entertainment. Historically inaccurate doesn't even begin to describe how bad this movie is -- and I happen to like Gary Cooper. But he looks uncomfortable in this worthless celluloid. This type of film is what makes so many people who are not uncritical admirers of Hollywood criticize its racism, its stereotyping and its insulting of peoples not European.
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.
arieliondotcom
If you want good fortune, avoid this one, cookie!! The big disappointment is that it is in b/w. You can put up with almost anything in glorious technicolor, but not this. It is painful to watch and the corny Confucius line is intentional to give a taste of that. From the shame of the lack of genuinely oriental actors (although this can be forgiven to some extent given the range of the conquests of the Khans. For example, the Princess, obviously Swedish/German with light eyes) could have been the conquest of Khan and a foreign woman of a farflung edge of the empire) to the failed attempts at humor, this one is a loser. But the acting is so horrible you really don't want to forgive them anything. Especially the so-called humor like shouting "Marco! Polo!" in the beginning of the film. Laugh riot that. Not.The one redeeming factor of the film is Gary Cooper. If you are a die-hard Gary Cooper fan you will probably watch him in anything so you may be forgiven for watching this.But if you're not a GC addict you should avoid this at all costs or risk having your brain fried worse than fireworks in your ears.
