La Fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965) - film review

A young Venetian Marco Polo is sent by Pope Gregory, with his father and uncle, to carry a message of peace to the powerful ruler of China, Kublai Khan.  The journey is long and hazardous and Marco Polo must fend of some dangerous opponents, including the Old Man of the Mountains and the Khan’s son, a Mongol Warrior who is opposed to any peace treaty with the West…

In spite of its luxurious photography, enormous budget and all-star cast, this shameless super-production fails to live up to its monolithic aspirations.  From the start, the film is overly pre-occupied with impressing its spectators with extravagant sets and stunning panoramic views.  Although these have some artistic merit, this is not enough to sustain the audience’s attention and it is the film’s lack of content and wooden characterisation which rob it of any true greatness.   The film’s only saving grace is captivating performance from Antony Quinn as the wise emperor Kubklai Khan.

The story of the film itself is probably as fascinating as the adventures of the young Venetian hero it relates.  It was originally conceived by Raoul Lévy as the ultimate historical epic, with the title L’Échiquier de Dieu (God’s Chessboard).  To direct the film, Lévy recruited Christian-Jaque, who already had several successful historic dramas under his belt.  The original cast included Alain Delon, an actor much sought after for his good looks and popularity, and experienced character actors  Michel Simon and Bernard Blier.

Almost from the start, the project seemed doomed.  The initial preparation for the film, which included tours of India, Afghanistan and Iran, ran up a budget of tens of millions of French francs. Lévy’s vision was clearly too ambitious to realise, including a charge of two hundred elephants and a gigantic game of chess with full-size figures.  When the film ran into financial difficulties during the first month of filming, Christian-Jaque pulled out of the project, along with his lead actors.

Lévy’s persevered in spite of these difficulties and managed to secure further funding for what was described as French cinema’s equivalent of the Algeria situation (i.e. pouring money into a lost cause).   Denys de La Patellière was hired to direct the film, and the young German actor Horst Buchholz was cast in the role of Marco Polo.  With tighter budgetary constraints, the film was completed, but fell way short of Lévy’s expectations.

Even with its international distribution, the film failed to recoup its staggering cost, which ran into hundreds of millions of French francs. The film was poorly received at the box office and was an enormous flop.  It is speculated that the film’s failure may have contributed to Lévy’s suicide in 1966.

© James Travers 2000

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