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Thanks for the memories!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO was a notable flop for producer Samuel Goldwyn, being a staged Hollywood version of the adventures of the famous Venetian explorer who travelled to China and brought back spaghetti and gunpowder. This one's a really hammy film which features an all-white cast in yellowface make up throughout, and the effect is hardly realistic, to say the least. Gary Cooper is miscast as the lead and there's some value from Basil Rathbone's clichéd scheming villain, but watching the likes of Lana Turner and George Barbier pretending to be Asian is quite the embarrassment. The rest is a blur of the predictable action scenes and talky melodrama.

Gary Cooper plays the role of Marco , a venetian adventurer , in this all star production of Marco Polo's adventures . Young Marco travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own assistant , with a new invention : gunpowder . Entertaining motion picture about oriental and medieval feats in superb Black and White cinematography and luxurious scenarios . High budget Hollywood production deals with Marco Polo travels from Venice to Pekin , where he falls in love with the Emperor's daughter . Marco (sympathetic as well laconic Gary Cooper) becomes the first traveler to record his visit to the Eastern court of the Emperor Kublai Khan . Once there he possesses his protection to merchandise between China and Europe but he prefers to seek out for more adventures . There Marco falls for gorgeous Princess Kukachin (Sigrid Gurie) . Kublai (Barbier) is a kindly fellow , but his villain aide Ahmed (Basil Rathbone replaced originally cast John Carradine as the evil of a piece) wants to get rid of Kublai Khan so he can be emperor, and to get rid of Marco Polo so he can marry the princess . But Ahmed sends Marco Polo to the West to fight barbarians led by a Tartar chief called Kaidu (Alan Hale Jr), but he goes back just in time to save the day . The Italian explorer rescues the daughter of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan , and meets a hermit (the prestigious silent actor H.B. Warner) who has invented gunpowder . During his adventures Polo is imprisoned and will suffer numerous dangers , adventures and risks ; besides he'll quickly discover many Chinese invents as coal , ¡ spaghetti! and gunpowder , among others .It's a spectacular adventure and plenty of emotions , action , romance and evocative musical score from Alfred Newman and Hugo Friedhofer . The picture blends far eastern adventures and medieval scenario . This is one of the most bemusing oriental adventure movies ever made and extremely well produced , lush production design and shot in awesome black and white photography from Archie Stout and Rudolph Mate . This juvenile romp is utterly amusing and entertaining though inexactly based on facts . Don't expect historic accuracy from this typical Hollywood product full of adventures , a love story and lots of action . The notorious producer Samuel Goldwyn were more concerned with offering moving and enjoyable amusement than factual information . However , the picture has some actual events such as the attempt conquest Japan by means a fleet that was sunk by strong winds ,thunders and gale . This marked the screen debut of Samuel Goldwyn's protégé Sigrid Gurie, whom he publicly labeled "the Norwegian Garbo , even though she was born in Brooklyn . In fact , by the time the film was released , it had been discovered Sigrid was born from the rather less exotic place of New York . Look out for Lana Turner in her sixth movie making a short appearance , almost extra , as a slave girl , later she recalled in a Gary Cooper biography that her "fancy black oriental wig" had been glued around her face with spirit gum, while she felt extremely uncomfortable in her costumes . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Archie Mayo who replaced John Cromwell after a few days due to "differences of opinion on story treatment," according to a press release. The film's producer Goldwyn then attempted to rope in William Wyler for the job , but Wyler wanted nothing to do with it, so Goldwyn persuaded John Ford to take over for a few days until he could find a permanent replacement for Cromwell. Archie Mayo was eventually brought in to finish the picture. The film was received poorly at the box-office, becoming the biggest flop up to that time for both Gary Cooper and Samuel Goldwyn; it was estimated that the picture lost close to $700,000 . The flick will appeal to far eastern saga fanciful and Gary Cooper enthusiasts. Other pictures based on this legendary character are the followings : ¨Marco Polo (1962)¨ by Hugo Fregonese and Piero Pierotti with Rory Calhoun , Yoko Tani and Robert Hundar ; "Marco the Magnificent" by Raoul Levy with Horst Buchhold, Anthony Quinn , Elsa Martinelli ; ¨Marco¨ (1973) by Seymour Robbie with Desi Aznar Jr , Zero Mostel ; the best results to be ¨Marco Polo¨ TV (1982) by Giuliano Montalvo with Ken Marshall , David Warner , F Murray Abraham , Leonard Nimoy ; ¨The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo on His Journeys to the Ends of the Earth¨ (1998) with Don Diamant , Jack Palance and Oliver Reed ; and ¨Marco Polo¨ (2007) by Kevin Connor with Ian Somerhalder , BD Wong and Brian Dennehy .

This film was a big loss to MGM in 1938, most people did not find that Gary Cooper was suited for this type of picture and his leading lady, Sigrid Gurie was a star from Norway who lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. and not many people knew anything about her. Anyway, Cooper played Marco Polo and tried his hand at comedy which did not suit him. Sigrid Gurie,(Princess Kukochin),"Sofia" fell in love with Parco Polo (Gary Cooper), "The Plainsman" even though she was going to have an arranged marriage to another man she did not know. Basil Rathbone, (Ahmed), "The Black Sleep", played the evil person who had strong desires for the Princess and wanted to kill Marco Polo. Alan Hale, (Kaidu), "The House Across the Street", gave a great performance as a supporting actor and gave the picture a great deal of humor. Sorry to see Gary Cooper in this picture which was a box office failure.

You either get it or you don't. Like most studio films, this movie was intended to make money by providing one thing - entertainment. Not a history lesson, not social commentary. Entertainment. Like the better realized but equally fake-medieval "Adventures of Robin Hood," released the same year (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (note the similar title) provides plenty of entertainment in the comedy-adventure genre that eventually led to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Evaluating either "Raiders" or "Marco Polo" on its historical accuracy misses the point. It's like asking how Marco is able to speak what must be flawless Mandarin, plus the language of Alan Hale's presumably Turkic people. If you gotta ask, the movie just isn't your style.Cooper looks a little less comfortable in this role than in some others, but he's adequately wry and intrepid, never taking the role of Marco too seriously. The rarely-seen Sigrid Gurie, whose face reminds one of Garbo, even through the Asian makeup, is beautiful and ethereal as the daughter of Kublai, played with Midwestern folksiness by the affable George Barbier. (Remember, it's not supposed to be real.) As Kublai's evil vizier, Basil Rathbone emanates the same elegant menace as he did in the role of Sir Guy in "Robin Hood." The ubiquitous Alan Hale, Sr., plays his usual self, and if you look carefully you'll see teenybopper Lana Turner in a small but fully credited role.Why aren't there any Chinese here in leading roles? Because first, the studio had big-name actors on contract and meant to use their box-office appeal to make a bundle. Second, despite the potentially impressive Asian-American talent pool in California no greed-driven executive would have counted on white audiences in 1938 to shell out Depression-era cash to watch Asian unknowns acting the leads in for-profit motion picture. "The Adventures of Marco Polo" is not "The Last Emperor," and it doesn't pretend to be. Nor is it a misconceived turkey like John Wayne's Mongol epic "The Conqueror" (1961). Instead it's only a great "family film" and simple adventurous fun in the pulp-magazine tradition.