This blockbuster would seem to have all the ingredients that should make for a good movie - sweep and grandeur, a top-notch cast, historical interest. But somehow it left me cold. The script is leaden, trite and formulaic. The battle scenes, despite a fantastic display of pyrotechnics later in the movie, are rather mundane and go on for too long, as if we don't get the point. The part of Baroness Ivanoff was obviously grafted onto the film to provide a vehicle for Ava Gardner whose contribution to the proceedings is minimal. I know Dmitri Tiomkin was a very popular film composer but his music always strikes me as nervously skittish and strangely disjunct; film music should never draw attention to itself and Tiomkin's always seems to be trying to. It's true that the production values are first rate; there is nothing like the color values of the old, extinct Technicolor process. But still it's a rather long haul to get through this well-meaning but ultimately disappointing effort. For a very much better take on China versus the West at this time, see "Sand Pebbles," a far superior film.
Review of 55 Days at Peking
