The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) | |
| Director(s) | Archie Mayo, John Cromwell (uncredited), John Ford (uncredited) |
| Producer(s) | Samuel Goldwyn, George Haight (associate) |
| Top Genres | Adventure, Biographical, Romance |
| Top Topics | Exotic Lands, Period Piece, True Story (based on) |
Featured Cast:
The Adventures of Marco Polo Overview:
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) was a Biographical - Adventure Film directed by John Cromwell and Archie Mayo and produced by Samuel Goldwyn and George Haight.
SYNOPSIS
Cooper as the Italian explorer Marco Polo in a big-budget Hollywood fantasy adventure. Despite a host of natural obstacles, Polo and his sidekick Binguccio (Truex) arrive triumphantly in the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan (Barbier). Soon they're involved in political goings-on that threaten to undo the Khan and break up Polo's romance with lovely Asian princess Kukachin (Gurle). To battle the sinister Ahmed (Rathbone) and his usurpers, Polo enlists the aid of happy-go-lucky outlaw Kaidu (Hale) and his merry men. Their attack on the walled city is one of the great cinematic battle scenes of all time.
(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).
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BlogHub Articles:
New From Warner Archive: Gary Cooper in The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
By KC on Sep 10, 2014 From Classic MoviesWelcome to 13th century China, Samuel Goldwyn-style. There's a Chinese princess played by Norwegian-American Sigrid Gurie, Kublai Khan is Philadelphia-born George Barbier and the devious emperor's advisor is Brit-to-the-bone Basil Rathbone. To be fair, there are a wide array of Asian faces among th... Read full article
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Facts about
Lana Turner later recalled in a Gary Cooper biography that her "fancy black oriental wig" had been glued around her face with spirit gum, while she felt extremely uncomfortable in her costumes, and worse yet, had her eyebrows shaved off, at the insistence of Samuel Goldwyn himself, and replaced them with false slanting black ones.
John Cromwell began directing on June 15th, 1937 but soon left the project after just five days of shooting, due to "differences of opinion on story treatment," according to a press release. The film's producer Samuel Goldwyn then attempted to rope in William Wyler for the job. Wyler wanted nothing to do with it, so Goldwyn persuaded John Ford to take over for a few days until he could find a permanent replacement for Cromwell. Archie Mayo was eventually brought in to finish the picture.
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