It's the summer of 1900 Peking. The Boxer Rellion explodes attacking foreigners and Christians. The Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi tries to harness the Boxers against the foreigners as differing voices in court argue. China veteran Maj. Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston) leads his US forces into the city. He tries to buy a British missionary captive from the Boxers but he's already dead. Sir Arthur Robinson (David Niven) leads the British mission trying to keep the peace. Lewis becomes romantically involved with Russian Baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner). Prince Tuan orders the murder of the German minister by the Boxers witnessed by Lewis. The Dowager 'advises' the foreign legations to leave Peking within 24 hours.
The politics is a bit simplified. Charlton Heston is impossibly gallant and uncomfortably stiff as the romantic lead. Ava Gardner has the unenviable task of batting googly eyes at him. David Niven does the stiff upper lip very well. He's the superior actor in this one. The main Chinese characters are all played by white actors. It's a missed opportunity but business as usual for Hollywood of that era. The extras are mostly Asians which is an effort considering the filming location is Spain. The sets are impressive. The battles are compelling big actions with lots of Chinese killed as well as the prerequisite foreigners. This is an old fashion war epic with as much racial sensitivity as can be expected.
The politics is a bit simplified. Charlton Heston is impossibly gallant and uncomfortably stiff as the romantic lead. Ava Gardner has the unenviable task of batting googly eyes at him. David Niven does the stiff upper lip very well. He's the superior actor in this one. The main Chinese characters are all played by white actors. It's a missed opportunity but business as usual for Hollywood of that era. The extras are mostly Asians which is an effort considering the filming location is Spain. The sets are impressive. The battles are compelling big actions with lots of Chinese killed as well as the prerequisite foreigners. This is an old fashion war epic with as much racial sensitivity as can be expected.