Marco the Magnificent (1965)

Young Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.

Directors:

Denys de La Patellière, Raoul Lévy

Writers:

Noël Howard, Raoul Lévy (as Raoul J. Lévy)

Stars:

Horst Buchholz, Anthony Quinn, Akim Tamiroff

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Horst Buchholz	...	Marco Polo
Anthony Quinn	...	Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor of China
Akim Tamiroff	...	The Old Man of the Mountain
Elsa Martinelli	...	The Woman with the Whip
Robert Hossein	...	Prince Nayam, Mongol Rebel Leader
Grégoire Aslan	...	Achmed Abdullah
Omar Sharif	...	Sheik Alla Hou, 'The Desert Wind'
Orson Welles	...	Akerman, Marco's Tutor
Massimo Girotti	...	Nicolo, Marco's Father
Folco Lulli	...	Spinello, Venetian Merchant
Guido Alberti	...	Pope Gregory X
Lynne Sue Moon	...	Princess Gogatine (as Lee Sue Moon)
Bruno Cremer	...	Guillaume de Tripoli, a Knight Templar
Jacques Monod	...	Nicolo de Vicenza, a Knight Templar
Mica Orlovic	...	Matteo, Marco's Uncle

Storyline

Il giovane Marco Polo, dopo le raccomandazioni ed i saggi consigli dell'anziano Akerman, parte alla volta della Cina per aiutare Kublai Khan nella lotta contro i ribelli, capeggiati dal proprio figlio, con una nuova invenzione : la polvere da sparo.

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Plot Keywords:

shocksploitation | marco polo | kublai khan | travel | rebel | 

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Taglines:

Marco made the best of two worlds!

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography

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Details

Country:

Italy France Afghanistan Egypt Yugoslavia

Language:

French Italian

Release Date:

1965 (Yugoslavia)

Also Known As:

Marco the Magnificent

Filming Locations:

Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avala Film, Cine Custodia Film AG Zuerich, ITTAC

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was started in 1962 by Christian-Jaque with Alain Delon, Dorothy Dandridge, Michel Simon and Bernard Blier. The filming was interrupted due to inadequate funding and was started again in 1963.

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Quotes

Achmed Abdullah: My gift cannot share your couch, my dear friend, but I know how much you love animals.
[he gestures towards a tiger]
Achmed Abdullah: . Does she please you?
The Old Man of the Mountain: Ohhh... a well-matched exchange, worthy of two old friends who trust each other.
Achmed Abdullah: It is difficult to fully trust a friend whose face one never sees. I would consider it a friendly act if you removed your golden mask.
The Old Man of the Mountain: It is a friendly act that I do not remove it. All who see my face - die!
Achmed Abdullah: But your assassins
[gesturing towards them]
Achmed Abdullah: all see your face.
The Old Man of the Mountain: And all ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Cinema Komunisto (2010)

User Reviews

Horst Bucholz as a Marco Polo playboy growing up

If you give this film a chance for the sake of Orson Welles, you will be disappointed. By all means, he is the first actor to appear in the film, but in one scene only. The rest of the film is mainly worth seeing for the sake of Omar Sharif at his most dashing and Anthony Quinn as Kublai Khan - he never failed to fulfill a character.

For the rest of the film, it's a feast to the eyes, and the music is perhaps the best part. The worst part is the script.

They always do that with the Marco Polo story. They never stick to his own book but make just anything up as romanticized as possible to avoid the casual scientific and extremely dry documentary of the book, which tells nothing of the characters but only of facts. The episode of the old man of the mountain is always especially screwed up into any fabulous extravaganza, and especially so here. He was a historical figure and actual leader of the assassins, but for some reason in every new version of Marco Polo they have to do anything to exagerrate his legend as much as possible. Here it is simply made ridiculous, and Akim Tamiroff is the only miscast of the film. They could have turned it into a real horror episode but only make it fall flat in absurdity.

Originally, it was planned to become a great epic directed by the qualified veteran Christian-Jacques with Alain Delon as Marco Polo, and there was nothing wrong with that idea. Unfortunately the project shipwrecked, and this was made instead some years later, still with a mainly French technical crew, but much cut down and shot almost entirely in Serbia.

So it's just another among the number of Marco Polo distorted fantasies, but it's not the worst one. I believe the worst one was the soap opera with Gary Cooper 1938, which was anything but the Marco Polo story. The best one though was the great television series of 1982-83 in eight long meticulous episodes with Ken Marshall, Denholm Elliott as the father, David Warner, F. Murray Abraham and Ruocheng Ying as the ultimate Kublai Khan, which TV-series so far also came closest to at least almost reaching the truth.