Marco Polo [L’avventura di un italiano in Cina] ** (1962, Rory Calhoun, Yoko Tani) – Classic Movie Review 13,995

Rory Calhoun stars as Marco Polo with Yoko Tani as Princess Amurroy in the lavish 1962 Italian historical action adventure epic film Marco Polo [L’avventura di un italiano in Cina].

Rory Calhoun stars as Marco Polo with Yoko Tani as Princess Amurroy in the expensive 1962 Italian historical epic action adventure film Marco Polo [L’avventura di un italiano in Cina], directed by Piero Pierotti. Marco Polo becomes entangled in the Mongol Empire, rescues Kublai Khan’s daughter, encounters a hermit with gunpowder, and faces political intrigue.

It was made on a lavish budget of $4 million, and had trouble recuperating its costs. The producers made Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan [Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World] as a ‘film di recupero’, a recovery film, to earn back money lost on their expensive epic Marco Polo. The film reuses the sets, extras and Yoko Tani as a princess from Marco Polo (1962)

Rory Calhoun, born Francis Timothy McCown in Los Angeles, is not obvious casting and looks silly in doublet and tights as famed Venetian explorer, merchant and writer Marco Polo who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. Wasn’t an Italian actor available? It’s not like Rory Calhoun was a big star draw at this point. Nevertheless, he is an amiable presence and provides some effective light swashbuckling.

Despite half a dozen respected Italian writers working on the screenplay, they have a lot of trouble carving out a decent, convincing, entertaining historical story. Obviously it is a movie fantasy of reality and we are not going for historical accuracy. All we need is an engaging fantasy. The romantic scenes of the film are particularly drossy. The production credits are good though, with colourful photography (in CinemaScope and Technicolor) and sets, some exciting, lusty action, and care as well as cash visibly lavished everywhere.

They should have been warned. In 1938, Gary Cooper appeared in Archie Mayo’s biographical film The Adventures of Marco Polo. Troubled with production problems and a weak screenplay, the film became Goldwyn’s biggest failure to date, losing $700,000.

Marco Polo was released in Italy on 21 June 1962, in the US in August 1962, and in France on 17 May 1963.

American International Pictures’ English-dubbed version includes new scenes directed by Hugo Fregonese and a new score by Les Baxter, replacing the original by Angelo Francisco Lavagnino.

The cast are Rory Calhoun as Marco Polo, Yoko Tani as Princess Amurroy, Camillo Pilotto as Grand Khan, Pierre Cressoy as Cuday, Michael Chow as Ciu-Lin, Tiny Yong (credited as Thien-Huong) as Tai-Au, Franco Ressel.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,995

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