The Adventures of Marco Polo ** (1938, Gary Cooper, Sigrid Gurie, Basil Rathbone, Binnie Barnes, Alan Hale Sr) – Classic Movie Review 13,996

The 1938 American historical adventure film The Adventures of Marco Polo stars Gary Cooper as the famed Venetian explorer. The Italian censors found the film disrespectful so the hero was changed to a Scotsman called MacBone Pan.

Director Archie Mayo’s 1938 American historical adventure film The Adventures of Marco Polo stars Gary Cooper, Sigrid Gurie, Basil Rathbone, Binnie Barnes, and Alan Hale Sr.

It is one of Samuel Goldwyn’s most adventurous, elaborate and costly productions, but it failed at the box office, losing an estimated $700,000 against a budget of $2 million.

Writer Robert E Sherwood gives a breezy working-over to the famous historical story about the intrepid medieval Italian who discovers China and fireworks of the both the sexual and the Guy Fawkes kind (and, apparently, spaghetti).

The Adventures of Marco Polo is a solid chunk of entertainment thanks to Goldwyn’s ambitious, extravagant production, upright hero Gary Cooper as Marco Polo and hissable villain Basil Rathbone as the Emperor’s adviser Ahmed, and the lively-at-all-costs script.

Needless to say, but I will, Gary Cooper is heroic but not obvious casting, way too American to play convincingly the famed Venetian explorer, merchant and writer Marco Polo who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. Maybe for that reason, Cooper seems less than comfortable, a little ill at ease, but then he must have known he looks silly in his period costume. Ernest Truex is pretty awful in a comic relief turn as Marco Polo’s assistant Binguccio.

Look for spectacle. Don’t look for a history lesson though. Look for Lana Turner as a handmaid instead. It’s a shame she didn’t play Princess Kukachin.

There is no colour just when it it needed. It is in black and white though release prints were in sepia.

It is all too Hollywood. In Italy, the Fascist censors considered the film disrespectful to Marco Polo and so it was released in 1939 as Uno scozzese alla corte del Gran Kan (A Scotsman at the Great Khan’s court). The hero was changed to a Scotsman called MacBone Pan while Binguccio became Macniff, and scenes at the beginning with references to Venice were cut. Ah, yes, The Adventures of MacBone Pan and Macniff!

Sam Goldwyn took credit for discovering Sigrid Gurie (born Sigrid Guri Haukelid), promoting her as ‘the Norwegian Garbo’ and ‘the siren of the fjords’. Unfortunately, the press discovered she was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Cast: Gary Cooper as Marco Polo, Sigrid Gurie as Princess Kukachin, Basil Rathbone as Ahmed, Binnie Barnes as Nazama, Alan Hale Sr as Kaidu, Ernest Truex as Binguccio, Lana Turner as Nazama’s Maid, George Barbier as Kublai Khan, H B Warner as Chen Tsu, Robert Greig as Chamberlain, Ferdinand Gottschalk as Persian Ambassador, Henry Kolker as Nicolo Polo, Lotus Liu as Visakha, Stanley Fields as Bayan, Harold Huber as Toctai, Harry Cording as Officer, Ward Bond, Theodore von Eltz, Jason Robards Sr as Messenger, Charles Stevens as Mongol Warrior.

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].

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,996

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com