55 Days at Peking

5/28/19632h 34m

Theatrical Release (US)

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

Overview:

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

Director:

Nicholas Ray

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$17,000,000.00

Revenue:

$10,000,000.00

Key words:

epic
siege
beijing, china
1900s
boxer rebellion

Cast

Charlton Heston

~ as ~

Maj. Matt Lewis

Ava Gardner

~ as ~

Baroness Natalie Ivanoff

David Niven

~ as ~

Sir Arthur Robertson

Flora Robson

~ as ~

Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi

John Ireland

~ as ~

Sgt. Harry

Harry Andrews

~ as ~

Father de Bearn

Leo Genn

~ as ~

Gen. Jung-Lu

Robert Helpmann

~ as ~

Prince Tuan

Kurt Kasznar

~ as ~

Baron Sergei Ivanoff

Philippe Leroy

~ as ~

Julliard

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 3 year(s) ago
7
It is tempting just to look upon this as an imperialist (Western, not Chinese) costume drama with fireworks. I think, however, it does merit a little more credit than that. Samuel Bronston pulls together quite a cast as Hollywood (via Madrid and Valencia) gives us it's version of the failed/foiled Boxer rebellion that lead to the ultimate decline of the Dragon Throne. Charlton Heston and David Niven develop a decent enough chemistry as the story takes shape, and Ava Gardner, Flora Robson, Leo Genn and Paul Lukas ensure there is some strength and depth to the supporting cast, and therefore to the story of the siege of the diplomatic compound in Peking by Chinese rebels in 1900. The sets are testament to what could be done in a world before CGI (and I bet the budgets wouldn't be that much different, either) and the mass-participation scenes are colourful, noisy and look good. As ever with these kind of films, there is an inevitability around the outcome; however preposterous the odds - but this is still a commendable effort to enlighten us, a little, as to the attitude of the colonial powers to China at the turn of the 20th Century.