- 55 Days at Peking
Infobox Film
name = 55 Days at Peking
|200px|thumb|DVD Cover of "55 Days at Peking".
caption =(left to right) Maj. Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston ), Baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner ), Sir Arthur Robertson (David Niven ) art byHoward Terpning
director =Nicholas Ray
producer =Samuel Bronston
writer =Philip Yordan
Bernard Gordon Robert Hamer Ben Barzman
starring =Charlton Heston
Ava Gardner
David Niven
Flora Robson
John Ireland
Leo Genn
Robert Helpmann
Kurt Kasznar
Paul Lukas
music =Dimitri Tiomkin
cinematography =Jack Hildyard
editing =Robert Lawrence
distributor =Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
released =May 29 1963
runtime = 150 minutes
country =USA
awards =
language = English
budget = US $17,000,000
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:293
imdb_id = 0056800"55 Days at Peking" is a 1963 historical
epic film made bySamuel Bronston Productions and released by Allied Artists. It was produced bySamuel Bronston and directed byNicholas Ray ,Andrew Marton (credited as thesecond unit director ) and Guy Green (uncredited). Thescreenplay was byPhilip Yordan ,Bernard Gordon ,Ben Barzman andRobert Hamer , the music score byDimitri Tiomkin and the cinematography byJack Hildyard .The large cast was headlined by
Charlton Heston ,Ava Gardner andDavid Niven . In addition to directing, Nicholas Ray plays the minor role of the head of the American diplomatic mission inChina . This film is also the first known appearance of futuremartial arts film starYuen Siu Tien . The acclaimed Japanese movie directorJuzo Itami , credited in the movie as "Ichizo Itami", appears in the movie as Colonel Goro Shiba.Plot
"55 Days at Peking" is a dramatization of the
Boxer Rebellion which took place in 1900 China. Fed up by foreign encroachment, theDowager Empress Tzu-Hsi uses the Boxer secret societies to attack the foreigners within China, culminating in the siege of the foreign legations' compounds in Peking (nowBeijing ). The film concentrates on the defense of the legations from the point of view of the foreign powers, and the title refers to the length of the defense by the colonial powers of the legations district of Peking.The foreign embassies in Peking are being held in a grip of terror as the Boxers set about massacring Christians in an anti-Christian nationalistic fever. U. S. Marine Corps Major Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston) heads an army of multinational soldiers defending the foreign compound in Peking. Inside the besieged compound, the British ambassador (David Niven) gathers the beleaguered ambassadors into a defensive formation. Included in the group of high-level dignitaries is the sultry Russian Baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner) who begins a romantic liaison with Lewis. As Lewis and the group conserve food and water and try to save some hungry children, they await the arrival of expected reinforcements, but the wily Empress Tzu Hsi (Flora Robson) is, in the meantime, plotting with the Boxers to break the siege at the compound with the aid of Chinese troops. Eventually however, the forces of the
Eight-Nation Alliance arrive and lift the siege over the legations district and put down the rebellion, an event which foreshadowed the demise of theQing Dynasty All the way Home. 55 Days at Peking all credits The Peking Theme "So Little Time Recorded byAndy Williams on CBS Records Words byPaul Francis Webster Music byDimitri Tiomkin The End Title Paintings byDong Kingman ASamuel Bronston Production Distributed by The Rank OrganistionCast
*
Charlton Heston - Maj. Matt Lewis
*Ava Gardner - Baroness Natalie Ivanoff
*David Niven - Sir Arthur Robinson
*Flora Robson - Dowager Empress Tsu Hzi
* John Ireland - Sergeant Harry
*Leo Genn - Gen. Jung-Lu
*Harry Andrews - Father de Bearn
*Robert Helpmann - Prince Tuan
*Juzo Itami - Col. Shiba
*Kurt Kasznar - Baron Sergei Ivanoff
*Philippe Leroy - Julliard
*Paul Lukas - Dr. Steinfeldt
* Lynne Sue Moon - Teresa
*Elizabeth Sellars - Lady Sarah Robertson
*Massimo Serato -Menotti Garibaldi
*Jacques Sernas - Maj. Bobrinski
* Jerome Thor - Lt. Andy Marshall
*Geoffrey Bayldon - Smythe
* Joseph Furst - Capt. Hanselman
*Walter Gotell - Capt. Hoffman
*Alfred Lynch - Gerald
*Alfredo Mayo - Spanish Minister
* Martin Miller - Hugo Bergmann
* Jose Nieto - Italian Minister
*Eric Pohlmann - Baron von Meck
* Aram Stephan - Gaumaire
*Robert Urquhart - Capt. Hanley
* R.S.M. Ronald Brittain - Sgt. Britten
* Felix Defauce - Dutch Minister
* Andre Eszterhazy - Austrian Minister
* Carlos Casaravilla - Japanese Minister
*Fernando Sancho - Belgian Minister
* Michael Chow - Chiang
* Mitchell Kowal - U.S. Marine
* John Moulder-Brown
* John A. Tinn
* Mervyn Johns - Clergyman
* Andy Ho
* George Wang - Boxer Chief
* Stephen Young
*Nicholas Ray - U.S. Minister (chief diplomatic representative)Academy Award nominations
The film received two
Academy Award nominations forDimitri Tiomkin (Best Song and Original Music Score).Technical details
"55 Days at Peking" was filmed in
Technicolor andTechnirama , which involved the horizontal use of 35-millimeter film, resulting in 70-millimeter printed film format. The aspect ratio was 2.20:1, with the image viewed at 2.35:1 on 35-millimeter prints. DVD release came onFebruary 28 2001 , nearly thirty-eight years after the film's premiereFilm notes
*The film maintains a certain curiosity value for cinephiles due to its credited director
Nicholas Ray . Best known for his 1955 movie "Rebel Without a Cause ", starringJames Dean , Ray was a tortured individual at the time of the production of "55 Days at Peking", somewhat akin to the Dean persona he helped to create for "Rebel". Paid a very high salary by producer Samuel Bronston to direct "55 Days", Ray had an inkling that taking on the project, a massive epic, would mean the end of him and that he would never direct another film again. The premonition proved correct when Ray collapsed on the set, half-way through the shooting. Unable to resume working (the film was finished byAndrew Marton and Guy Green), he never received another directorial assignment. In the final months of his life, he collaborated withWim Wenders , on the 1979 feature "Lightning Over Water" aka "Nick's Film"/"Nick's Movie", which recorded his last moments.*According to the writer and critic
Stephen Teo , the opening scene of "55 Days at Peking", showing various Western powers causing a din in the Peking marketplace by playing their respective national anthems, was "quoted" by theHong Kong directorTsui Hark in his 1991 film "Once Upon a Time in China " [see Teo's essay "Tsui Hark: National Style and Polemic" in Yau, Esther C. M. (ed.). "At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World", page 158. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.]*The film was shot in the vicinity of
Madrid , and most (thousands) of the Chinese residents ofSpain , and some from other parts ofEurope were hired as extras [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056800/trivia IMDB trivia] .] .*The film gives little background of the humiliating military defeats suffered during the
Opium Wars ,Sino-French War and Sino-Japanese war or the effect of theTaiping Rebellion in weakening theQing Dynasty . However, situations in which the various colonial powers exerted influence over China ("great source of outrage that drove many Chinese to violence") are alluded to in the scene in which Sir Arthur Robinson and Major Lewis visit the Empress after the assassination of the German minister.
**"Dowager Empress" - "....the boxer bandits will be dealt with, but the anger of the Chinese people cannot be quieted so easily. The Germans have seized Kiaochow, the Russians have seized Port Arthur, the French have obtained concessions in Yunnan, Kwan See and Kwantang. In all, 13 of the 18 provinces of China are under foreign control. Foreign warships occupy our harbours, foreign armies occupy our forts, foreign merchants administer our banks, foreign gods disturb the spirit of our ancestors. Is it surprising that our people are aroused?"
**"Sir Arthur Robinson" - "Your Majesty if you permit me to observe, the violence of the Boxers will not redress the grievences of China"
**"Dowager Empress" - "China is a prostrate cow, the powers are not content milking her, but must also butcher her."
**"Sir Arthur Robinson" - "If China is a cow your majesty, she is indeed a marvelous animal. She gives meat as well as milk...."Notes
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