55 Days at Peking (1963)

Taglines:

A handful of men and women held out against the frenzied hordes of bloodthirsty fanatics!

Parents Guide:

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Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 July 1963 (Australia) See more »

Also Known As:

55 Dias em Pequim See more »

Filming Locations:

Las Matas, Madrid, Spain See more »

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Production Co:

Samuel Bronston Productions See more »

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Runtime:

154 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Trivia

Charlton Heston's character, Major Matt Lewis, was loosely based on the real-life officer in charge of the marine guard at the US Legation, then Captain, later Lieutenant General, John Twiggs Myers USMC (1871-1952). Myers was in the forefront of some of the toughest fighting in the besieged legations, wounded during the fighting on the Tartar Wall. See more »

Goofs

Anachronisms: When the Boxers are coming over the wall, there is a brief scene of US Marines manning a machine gun. That machine gun is a water-cooled Browning M-1917. This was introduced in 1917 during WWI, hence it's nomenclature. This film is set in 1900. US Marines *did*, in fact, have and use machine guns during the siege. But these guns were Browning-Colt M-1895 machine guns, which were distinctly different from the gun shown. See more »

Quotes

Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi: The boxer bandits will be dealt with, but the anger of the Chinese people cannot be quieted so easily. The Germans have seized Kiaochow, the Russians have seized Port Arthur, the French have obtained concessions in Yunnan, Kwan See and Kwantang. In all...
[...]
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Connections

Referenced in A Night at the Movies: The Gigantic World of Epics (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

"So Little Time"
(The Peking Theme)
Recorded by Andy Williams on CBS Records
Words by Paul Francis Webster
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin See more »