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Marco the Magnificent

Original title: La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo
  • 19651965
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
568
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
  • Adventure
  • Biography
Young Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.Young Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.Young Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
568
YOUR RATING
  • Directors
    • Denys de La Patellière
    • Raoul Lévy(uncredited)
    • Noël Howard
  • Writers
    • Denys de La Patellière(screenplay)
    • Raoul Lévy(screenplay)
    • Jacques Rémy(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Horst Buchholz
    • Grégoire Aslan
    • Robert Hossein
Top credits
  • Directors
    • Denys de La Patellière
    • Raoul Lévy(uncredited)
    • Noël Howard
  • Writers
    • Denys de La Patellière(screenplay)
    • Raoul Lévy(screenplay)
    • Jacques Rémy(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Horst Buchholz
    • Grégoire Aslan
    • Robert Hossein
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 7User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos61

    Horst Buchholz in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn and Horst Buchholz in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn and Robert Hossein in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Robert Hossein in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn and Myriam Michelson in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Lynne Sue Moon and Myriam Michelson in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)
    Anthony Quinn in La fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo (1965)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Horst Buchholz
    Horst Buchholz
    • Marco Poloas Marco Polo
    Grégoire Aslan
    Grégoire Aslan
    • Achmed Abdullahas Achmed Abdullah
    Robert Hossein
    Robert Hossein
    • Prince Nayam, Mongol Rebel Leaderas Prince Nayam, Mongol Rebel Leader
    Elsa Martinelli
    Elsa Martinelli
    • The Woman with the Whipas The Woman with the Whip
    Akim Tamiroff
    Akim Tamiroff
    • The Old Man of the Mountainas The Old Man of the Mountain
    Omar Sharif
    Omar Sharif
    • Emir Alaouas Emir Alaou
    Anthony Quinn
    Anthony Quinn
    • Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor of Chinaas Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor of China
    Orson Welles
    Orson Welles
    • Akerman, Marco's Tutoras Akerman, Marco's Tutor
    Massimo Girotti
    Massimo Girotti
    • Nicolo Polo, Marco's Fatheras Nicolo Polo, Marco's Father
    Folco Lulli
    Folco Lulli
    • Spinello, Venetian Merchantas Spinello, Venetian Merchant
    Guido Alberti
    • Pope Gregory Xas Pope Gregory X
    Lynne Sue Moon
    Lynne Sue Moon
    • Princess Gogatineas Princess Gogatine
    • (as Lee Sue Moon)
    Bruno Cremer
    Bruno Cremer
    • Guillaume de Tripoli, a Knight Templaras Guillaume de Tripoli, a Knight Templar
    Maria Virginia Onorato
    • Alaou's Wifeas Alaou's Wife
    • (as Virginia Onorato)
    Jacques Monod
    Jacques Monod
    • Nicolo de Vicenza, a Knight Templaras Nicolo de Vicenza, a Knight Templar
    Mica Orlovic
    • Matteo Polo, Marco's Uncleas Matteo Polo, Marco's Uncle
    Mansoureh Rihai
    • Tahaas Taha
    Dragomir Felba
      • Directors
        • Denys de La Patellière
        • Raoul Lévy(uncredited)
        • Noël Howard
      • Writers
        • Denys de La Patellière(screenplay)
        • Raoul Lévy(screenplay)
        • Jacques Rémy(screenplay)
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
      • All cast & crew

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      Storyline

      Edit
      During the 1200s, young Marco Polo, joins his father Niccolò and his uncle Matteo, who recently returned from China, and prepares to visit the Pope who summoned them. The Pope entrusts the Polo family with a trade mission to China and with a personal message of peace for China's Emperor Kublai Khan. Unknown to all of them is the fact that the peaceful Kublai Khan is facing a treasonous dissension among his Mongol war chieftains, led by his war-loving son. His son wants the throne for himself and desires to destroy all Chinese subjects, in favor of his Mongol ones. He also wants to invade Europe and avail himself of slaves, territory and spoils of war. In Venice, the Polos board a ship for the Holly Lands, presently occupied by the Crusaders. From there, they are to proceed by caravan, overland, to Samarkand and eventually reach Peking. However, the overland route passes through several kingdoms, caliphates and wild rugged regions inhabited by unwelcoming warlike tribes. The route also presents other dangers, such as bandits, assassins, murderous religious sects and natural perils such as sand storms and rough terrain. At some point, Marco splits from the caravan and takes a different path, shorter but more perilous, while his father Niccolò and his uncle Matteo continue on the traditional caravan route, that is longer but safer. They all pledge to meet in Samarkand. Marco has his share of dangerous adventures while his father and uncle run into trouble of their own. Often times, it seems that their mission is about to fail and looks like none will reach China alive. However, the Pope's faith in his envoys' ability to overcome adversity and peril is justified and their mission seems protected by a higher power. —nufs68
      • 13th century
      • mongol empire
      • yuan dynasty
      • 14th century
      • timeframe 1200s
      • 27 more
      • Plot summary
      • Add synopsis
      • Taglines
        • A story of endurance, savagery and heroism [Video Australia]
      • Genres
        • Adventure
        • Biography
      • Parents guide
        • Add content advisory

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        The film was started in 1962 by Christian-Jaque with Alain Delon, Dorothy Dandridge, Michel Simon and Bernard Blier. The filming was interrupted due to inadequate funding and was started again in 1963.
      • Quotes

        Achmed Abdullah: My gift cannot share your couch, my dear friend, but I know how much you love animals.

        [he gestures towards a tiger]

        Achmed Abdullah: . Does she please you?

        The Old Man of the Mountain: Ohhh... a well-matched exchange, worthy of two old friends who trust each other.

        Achmed Abdullah: It is difficult to fully trust a friend whose face one never sees. I would consider it a friendly act if you removed your golden mask.

        The Old Man of the Mountain: It is a friendly act that I do not remove it. All who see my face - die!

        Achmed Abdullah: But your assassins

        [gesturing towards them]

        Achmed Abdullah: all see your face.

        The Old Man of the Mountain: And all die. And go to paradise the moment I tell them their time has come.

        Achmed Abdullah: But the women... the women you love, surely you remove your mask for them?

        The Old Man of the Mountain: Oh, if you only knew how much it hurts me to lose so many loved ones...!

        [he sighs heavily]

        The Old Man of the Mountain: Do you still wish me to remove my mask?

        Achmed Abdullah: Who me? Did I ask for that? No!

      • Connections
        Featured in The Movie Orgy (1968)

      User reviews7

      Review
      Top review
      7/10
      Horst Bucholz as a Marco Polo playboy growing up
      If you give this film a chance for the sake of Orson Welles, you will be disappointed. By all means, he is the first actor to appear in the film, but in one scene only. The rest of the film is mainly worth seeing for the sake of Omar Sharif at his most dashing and Anthony Quinn as Kublai Khan - he never failed to fulfill a character.

      For the rest of the film, it's a feast to the eyes, and the music is perhaps the best part. The worst part is the script.

      They always do that with the Marco Polo story. They never stick to his own book but make just anything up as romanticized as possible to avoid the casual scientific and extremely dry documentary of the book, which tells nothing of the characters but only of facts. The episode of the old man of the mountain is always especially screwed up into any fabulous extravaganza, and especially so here. He was a historical figure and actual leader of the assassins, but for some reason in every new version of Marco Polo they have to do anything to exagerrate his legend as much as possible. Here it is simply made ridiculous, and Akim Tamiroff is the only miscast of the film. They could have turned it into a real horror episode but only make it fall flat in absurdity.

      Originally, it was planned to become a great epic directed by the qualified veteran Christian-Jacques with Alain Delon as Marco Polo, and there was nothing wrong with that idea. Unfortunately the project shipwrecked, and this was made instead some years later, still with a mainly French technical crew, but much cut down and shot almost entirely in Serbia.

      So it's just another among the number of Marco Polo distorted fantasies, but it's not the worst one. I believe the worst one was the soap opera with Gary Cooper 1938, which was anything but the Marco Polo story. The best one though was the great television series of 1982-83 in eight long meticulous episodes with Ken Marshall, Denholm Elliott as the father, David Warner, F. Murray Abraham and Ruocheng Ying as the ultimate Kublai Khan, which TV-series so far also came closest to at least almost reaching the truth.
      helpful•0
      0
      • clanciai
      • Apr 20, 2018

      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • August 6, 1965 (France)
      • Countries of origin
        • France
        • Italy
        • Afghanistan
        • Egypt
        • Yugoslavia
      • Languages
        • French
        • Italian
      • Also known as
        • Marko Polo
      • Filming locations
        • Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia
      • Production companies
        • ITTAC
        • Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC)
        • Prodi Cinematografica
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

      Edit
      • Budget
        • $2,500,000 (estimated)
      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Technical specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        1 hour 40 minutes
      • Sound mix
        • Mono
      • Aspect ratio
        • 2.35 : 1

      Related news

      Netflix Cancels ‘Marco Polo’ After 2 Seasons
      Netflix Cancels ‘Marco Polo’ After 2 Seasons
      Dec 13The Wrap
      Marco Polo Cancelled by Netflix
      Dec 13TVLine.com

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