La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)

Directors:

Denys de La Patellière
Raoul Lévy

Writers:

Noël Howard (writer)
Raoul Lévy (writer)

Release Date:

1965 (Yugoslavia)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography

Tagline:

A story of endurance, savagery and heroism [Video Australia]

Plot:

Orson Welles plays the role of Akerman, a venetian savant, in this all star production of Marco Polo's adventures...

Plot Keywords:

Marco Polo | Kublai Khan | Travel | Savant | China

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Marco the Magnificent (UK) (USA)
Kublai Khan (Australia) (video title)
L'échiquier de Dieu (France) (working title)
Le meravigliose avventure di Marco Polo (Italy)
Lo scacchiere di Dio (Italy)
Marco Polo the Magnificent (Australia) (poster title)
Marko Polo (Yugoslavia: Serbian title)
The Adventures of Marco Polo (Australia) (subtitle)

Runtime:

Germany:110 min | USA:100 min | France:112 min

Country:

Italy | France | Yugoslavia | Afghanistan | Egypt

Language:

French | Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | West Germany:12 (f)

Filming Locations:

Yugoslavia

Company:

Avala Film

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.

visually very appealing but ultimately disappointing

Cinematographer Armand Thirard (les Diaboliques, le Salaire de la peur) does a fabulous job with beautiful environmental shots, but unfortunately everything else in this movie is crap. This movie is terrible, but somehow visually reminiscent of Kwaidan (Kobayashi, 1964), which is one of the greatest fairy-tale films in the world, largely because of the sceneries and the lighting. 'Marco' could have been magnificent if there was another protagonist and another director. It is a pretentious and dumb movie with (2-minute performance) box-office attraction Orson Welles who wore a silly costume: don't bother to see it plz. Maybe nice for kids though as a supposed adventure movie. And to see Anthony Quinn in an unexpected role: I had to search the credits to find which part he played. I would be grateful if someone did a remake of these promising tales.