Marco Polo

Here Marco Polo is portrayed as a vagabond who is irresistibly charming to all women and far more interested in having a good time than in documenting the cultural anthropology of Asia. Hollywood actor Calhoun, best known for his westerns, seems like an offbeat casting choice, and he is, though his charisma is ultimately one of the film's main appeals. After travelogue images of Venice, the story shifts jarringly to Asia, where Polo picks up the cheerful tour guide Ciu-Lin along the way. Mainly, the plot revolves around Polo's romance with Princess Amurroy, the daughter of the Great Khan, whose Peking kingdom is threatened by the Jaffar Mongka. On the side of Cuday, the leading freedom fighter loyal to the Khan, Polo tries to set things right in China.

"Marco Polo" is the kind of film that is much more interesting to watch for its production aspects and its unusual combination of talents than for its storyline. The "historical" genre was in full swing in Italy at the time, mainly sword-and-sandal films revolving around the trials of Hercules and the adventures of Maciste, but occasionally ambitious filmmakers there stretched themselves with (slightly) larger productions aimed at attracting an appealing even wider international audience. Marco Polo, an undernourished would-be epic, was probably spurred on by the European press when it came to the upcoming production of Samuel Bronston's all-star epic 55 Days in Peking (1963).