The Adventures of Marco Polo ** (1938, Gary Cooper, Sigrid Gurie, Basil Rathbone, Binnie Barnes, Alan Hale Sr)

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

Writer Robert Sherwood gives a breezy working-over to the famous 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 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.

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.

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!

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.