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| The gorgeously painted poster in booming colors for Nicholas Ray, Andrew Marton and Guy Green's 55 Days at Peking |
American Marine Major Lewis has to get his Western counterparts to stand shoulder by shoulder in Peking around 1900 in the bloody 'Boxer Rebellion'.
Charlton Heston (Planet of the Apes (1968)) is the angular strong-man, who falls for a stoic beauty from Russia (Ava Gardner (The Barefoot Contessa (1954))). David Niven (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) beautifully portrays the over-courteous and feeble-minded Brit, a character who grows in the course of the film.
Dmitri Tiomkin's (Rio Bravo (1959)) music is grand. He was both Oscar-nominated for his score and for the song So Little Time, with Paul Francis Webster (Paytonn Place (1957), lyrics). 55 Days is also the kind of epic where its sets are so big and detailed that one feels compelled to watch without blinking.
Wisconsinite Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause (1955)) was a great director, and he was hired to direct: However, somewhere in the course of doing this, he became so overworked that he collapsed on the set, and Guy Green (A Patch of Blue (1965)) and Andrew Marton (The Longest Day (1962)) finished the job uncredited. Save for a lost horror film and an experimental film, We Can't Go Home Again (1973) and some shorts, this became Ray's last film. 55 Days is written by Philip Yordan (The Bravados (1958)), Bernard Gordon (Crime Wave (1954)) and an uncredited Ben Barzman (The Heroes of Telemark (1965)), with Robert Hamer (They All Died Laughing (1964)) supplying some dialogue.
The film contains both suspense, glamour, destitution and tragedy, SPOILER although the latter is ultimately lightened some by a humane decision committed by Heston's wonderful character. - Epic historical dramas rarely get finer than 55 Days at Peking.
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| The marvelous water color title still, created by Chinese-American artist Dong Kingman for Nicholas Ray, Guy Green and Andrew Marton's 55 Days at Peking |
Here is a short trailer for the film
Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 10 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty (likely at least a big flop)
[55 Days at Peking premiered 4 May (UK) and runs 153 minutes. The period in Chinese history that the film portrays, influenced, naturally, by its own time, is still controversial today. Ray was reportedly paid a very high salary for directing the film, which made him uneasy that it should become his last, which it sort of did. Filming took place near Madrid in Spain, and 4,000 extras were employed, including many Chinese, who were recruited from restaurants and laundries across Europe, as Spain didn't have enough Chinese people for the mass scenes. The film became the 20th highest grossing in North America for the year, but with its massive budget, it was still a financial disaster, although it was reportedly more successful internationally. - Without those figures, however, it is impossible to make out its precise status, although it was likely at least a big flop. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It lost Best Score to John Addison for Tom Jones and Best Song to Call Me Irresponsible from Papa's Delicate Condition. Ray returned with now lost horror, The Doctor and the Devil (1965). Green returned with A Patch of Blue (1965). Marton returned with The Thin Red Line (1964). Heston returned in Kraft Mystery Theater (1963, TV-series), The Patriots (1963, TV movie) and theatrically in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Gardner in Seven Days in May (1964); and Niven in Burke's Law (1963, TV-series) and theatrically in The Pink Panther (1963). 5,288 IMDb-users have given 55 Days at Peking an average rating of 6.8/10.]
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