55 Days at Peking

55 Days at Peking
Theatrical release poster by Howard Terpning
Directed by	Nicholas Ray
Written by	Philip Yordan Bernard Gordon Robert Hamer Ben Barzman
Based on	55 Days at Peking 1963 novel by Noel Gerson
Produced by	Samuel Bronston
Starring	Charlton Heston Ava Gardner David Niven Flora Robson John Ireland Leo Genn Robert Helpmann Kurt Kasznar Paul Lukas
Cinematography	Jack Hildyard
Edited by	Robert Lawrence
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Production company	Samuel Bronston Productions
Distributed by	Allied Artists
Release date	May 29, 1963
Running time	153 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$10 million

55 Days at Peking is a 1963 American epic historical war film dramatizing siege of the foreign legations' compounds in Peking (now known as Beijing) during the Boxer Rebellion, which took place in China from 1898 to 1900. It is based on the book by Noel Gerson and produced by Samuel Bronston for Allied Artists, with a screenplay by Philip Yordan, Bernard Gordon, Robert Hamer, and Ben Barzman.

The film was directed primarily by Nicholas Ray, though Guy Green and Andrew Marton took over in the latter stages of filming after Ray fell ill. Both are uncredited. It stars Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven, with supporting roles by Flora Robson, John Ireland, Leo Genn, Robert Helpmann. Harry Andrews, and Kurt Kasznar. It also contains the first known screen appearance of future martial arts film star Yuen Siu Tien. Japanese film director Juzo Itami, credited in the film as "Ichizo Itami", appears as Col. Goro Shiba.

55 Days at Peking was released by Allied Artists on May 29, 1963 and received mixed reviews, mainly for its historical inaccuracies. However, the film was praised for its acting, direction, music, action sequences, and production design. In addition to its critical failure, the film grossed $10 million at the box office against a budget of only $9 million. Despite its financial failure, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards. It was director Ray's last film until Lightning Over Water (1980).

Ray said the film "epitomized the worst of Hollywood, and it was done by an independent producer who managed to deceive, steal, cheat . . . and bring all the worst aspects of Hollywood into a film being-shot in Spain. It’s a very painful film for me to talk about."

Plot

Starvation, widespread in China, is affecting more than 100 million peasants by the summer of 1900. Approximately a thousand foreigners from various western industrialized countries have exploited their positions inside Peking's legations, seeking control of the weakened nation. The Boxers oppose the westerners and their Christian religion and are planning to drive them out.

The turmoil in China worsens as the Boxer secret societies gain tacit approval from the Dowager Empress Cixi. With 13 of China's 18 provinces forced into territorial concessions by those colonial powers, frustration over foreign encroachment boils over when the Empress encourages the Boxers to attack all foreigners in Peking and the rest of China. When the Empress condones the assassination of the German ambassador and "suggests" the foreigners leave, a violent siege of Peking's foreign legations district erupts. Peking's foreign embassies are gripped by terror, as the Boxers, supported by Imperial troops, set about killing Christians in an anti-western nationalistic fever.

The head of the US military garrison is US Marine Major Matt Lewis, an experienced China hand who knows local conditions well. A love interest blossoms between him and Baroness Natasha Ivanoff, a Russian aristocrat, who it is revealed had an affair with a Chinese General, causing her Russian husband to commit suicide. The Russian Imperial Minister, who is Natasha's brother-in-law, has revoked her visa in an attempt to recover a valuable necklace. Although the Baroness tries leaving Peking as the siege begins, she is forced by events to return to Major Lewis and volunteers in the hospital, which is battered by the siege and is running out of supplies. To help the defenders, the Baroness exchanges her very valuable jeweled necklace for medical supplies and food, but she is wounded in the process and later succumbs.

Lewis leads the small contingent of 400 multinational soldiers and American Marines defending the compound. As the siege worsens, Maj. Lewis forms an alliance with the senior officer at the British Embassy, Sir Arthur Robinson, pending the arrival of a British-led relief force. After hearing that the force has been repulsed by Chinese forces, Maj. Lewis and Sir Arthur succeed in their mission to blow up a sizable Chinese ammunition dump.

As the foreign defenders conserve food and water, while trying to save hungry children, the Empress continues plotting with the Boxers by supplying aid from her Chinese troops. Eventually, a foreign relief force from the Eight-Nation Alliance arrives and puts down the Boxer's rebellion. The troops reach Peking on the 55th day and, following the Battle of Peking, lift the siege of the foreign legations. Foreshadowing the demise of the Qing Dynasty, rulers of China for the previous two and a half centuries, the Dowager Empress Cixi, alone in her throne room, having gambled her empire and lost, declares to herself, "The dynasty is finished", repeating the phrase three times...

When the soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance have taken control of the city, after routing the Boxers and the remnants of the Imperial Army, Maj. Lewis gathers up his men, having received new orders from his superiors to leave Peking. He stops and circles back to retrieve Teresa, the young, half-Chinese daughter of one of his few Marine friends who was killed during the 55 day siege. Aboard his horse, she and Maj. Lewis leave the city behind, followed by his column of marching Marines.

Cast

• Charlton Heston as Maj. Matt Lewis (based upon John Twiggs Myers)
• Ava Gardner as Baroness Natasha Ivanoff
• David Niven as Sir Arthur Robertson (based upon Sir Claude MacDonald)
• Flora Robson as Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi
• John Ireland as Sgt. Harry
• Leo Genn as Gen. Jung-Lu
• Harry Andrews as Father de Bearn
• Robert Helpmann as Prince Tuan
• Juzo Itami as Col. Goro Shiba
• Kurt Kasznar as Baron Sergei Ivanoff
• Philippe Leroy as Julliard
• Paul Lukas as Dr. Steinfeldt
• Lynne Sue Moon as Teresa
• Elizabeth Sellars as Lady Sarah Robertson
• Massimo Serato as Menotti Garibaldi
• Jacques Sernas as Maj. Bobrinski
• Jerome Thor as Capt. Andy Marshall
• Geoffrey Bayldon as Smythe
• Joseph Furst as Capt. Hanselman
• Walter Gotell as Capt. Hoffman
• Alfredo Mayo as Spanish Minister
• Martin Miller as Hugo Bergmann
• José Nieto as Italian Minister
• Eric Pohlmann as Baron von Meck
• Aram Stephan as Gaumaire
• Robert Urquhart as Capt. Hanley
• Burt Kwouk as Old Man (voice)

Uncredited roles:

• Fernando Sancho as Belgian Minister (based upon Maurice Joostens)
• Nicholas Ray as U.S. Minister (based upon Edwin H. Conger)
• Félix Dafauce as Dutch Minister
• Carlos Casaravilla as Japanese Minister
• R.S.M. Ronald Brittain as Sgt. Britten
• Alfred Lynch as Gerald
• Michael Chow as Chiang
• George Wang as Kaige, Boxer Chief
• Lucille Soong as Concubine
• Yuen Siu Tien as Court Boxer
• John Moulder-Brown as Tommy
• Milton Reid as Boxer

Depictions of historical persons and events

The historical events depicted were, and remain, politically charged. The film's storyline addresses race-relations, colonialism, and nationalism as they were at the end of the 19th century and reflect the 1960s' growing concerns about these issues, rather than those of the Boxer Rebellion period. The conflicts between Chinese, Japanese, and European nationalism are also addressed.

Most of the starring Chinese roles, including the Empress Dowager and her Prime Minister, are played "yellowface" by white performers. However, the Japanese characters in the foreign legation are played by Asian actors, though their roles are minor.

Chinese view of "foreign powers"

The film opens with cacophonous displays of nationalism inside the Foreign Legation quarter, with each nation raising its own flag, while playing its signature national anthem. The camera pans over to two old Chinese men eating a meal in a crowded street:

• Old Chinese Man 1: (with hands over ears): "What is this terrible noise?"
• Old Chinese Man 2: "Different nations saying the same thing at the same time, 'We want China!'"

The resentment of the Chinese Imperial Court at having to accept the presence of foreign powers in China is given its sharpest voice in the character of Prince Tuan (played by Australian ballet dancer Robert Helpmann) who counsels the Dowager Empress (British actress Flora Robson) to support the rebel Boxer "patriots" seeking to wipe out the foreigners. Opposing this aggressive stance is Gen. Ronglu (British actor Leo Genn).

• Gen. Jung Lu: "If the Boxers remain unchecked, a dozen foreign armies will descend on China".
• Prince Tuan: "We are tens of millions – let them come!"

The general warns the Empress that the Boxer rebels will be unable to match the modern armies of the foreigners. The Empress's sympathy for the Boxers grows, however and, in a later scene, she orders her general to turn back the foreign armies, declaring:

• Dowager Empress: "China's condition can be no worse than it is! Even if we were to start a war and lose it, what more can the powers take from us?"

When the siege has ended in defeat for the Boxers, the Empress is seen at the Dragon throne, in distress and without her robes of state: "The dynasty is finished," she repeats to herself three times.

Development

In 1959 producer Jerry Wald announced he would make a film on the Boxer Rebellion called The Hell Raisers. He hoped to star David Niven and Stephen Boyd.

Meanwhile, producer Samuel Bronston had enjoyed success making historical spectacles in Spain, particularly King of Kings, directed by Nicholas Ray, and El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann starring Charlton Heston. He decided to make one that involved the British; his regular writer Philip Yordan suggested the Boxer Rebellion, which became 55 Days at Peking.

Bronston said he was attracted to the Boxer Rebellion because it showed "the unity of peoples, no matter what their beliefs, in the face of danger. This incident is what the UN symbolizes but has not yet achieved," he said in 1962

Yordan said "the diplomatic representatives of the 11 nations in Peking formed a sort of League of Nations 20 years before the Wilson idea was born. Their successful defense proved in its own way that people of different nationalities can forget their differences when they are united in a common cause."

In September 1961 Bronston announced he would make a trilogy of new historical spectacles in Spain: 55 days at Peking, Fall of the Roman Empire and The French Revolution, each with a budget of around $6 million and from scripts by Yordan. The first to be made would be Fall, with Mann and Heston; then would come Peking which Bronston wanted Alec Guinness to star, and to have a "British director"; followed by French Revolution, which would be directed by Nicholas Ray.

Bronston's announcement upset Jerry Wald who said he had spent $150,000 on The Hell Raisers including paying Barre Lyndon to write a script, and he also wanted Guinness to star. However Wald could not copyright the Boxer Rebellion.

Heston disliked Yordan's script for The Fall of the Roman Empire. In November, Bronston presented Heston with a treatment for 55 Days at Peking and by this stage Ray was attached to direct. "It might be an interesting period for a film," wrote Heston. "I'd like to work for Nick, too." By the end of the year, after meetings with Yordan and Ray, Heston agreed to make the movie. "I feel uneasy," he wrote, "but I'm now convinced I must go basically on what confidence I have in a director's talent."

Ray said he woke up one night and told his wife “Something has come to me in the night, and told me that if I do this film I will never make another film.” However he did it for the money, breaking "my promise to myself never to do anything I don’t want to do.”

Allied Artists, who had agreed to distribute El Cid, signed to distribute Peking in the US. The film starred Charlton Heston, who had made El Cid, and was directed by Nicholas Ray, who had made King of Kongs. Bronston raised the money by pre-selling the film to distributors on the basis of the topic, and the involvement of Heston and Ray.

The set was built on a forty acre site ten miles out of Madrid.

Casting

Bronston wanted Katherine Hepburn to play the Chinese empress. In June 1962 Flora Robson signed to play the part.

Bronston wanted Ava Gardner for the female lead but Heston did not want to work with Gardner and pushed for a European star. The role was offered to Melinda Mecouri who turned it down wanting rewrites. Eventually Heston agreed to Gardner's casting. David Niven joined the cast in June, the same month Ava Gardner signed. Niven's fee was $350,000.

The script was written by Bernard Gordon, who was blacklisted at the time.

Shooting

Garner's biographer Lee Server later wrote that Bronston's "films were generally produced in an atmosphere of disorganization, middle level corruption and creative chaos. 55 Days at Peking would be no exception.."

Filming began 2 July 1962. The film was shot in the studios built by Samuel Bronston in Las Rozas de Madrid, near Madrid. Due to the commercial failure of the film and other enterprises by Bronston, the area is now a residential compound in Las Matas.

Gardner was difficult during the shoot, often turning up late, disliking the script and drinking heavily. One day she walked off set claiming an extra was taking her photograph.

Nicholas Ray later said "the pressure was tremendous. On a $6 million production, I had no production manager, and a 21-year-old assistant director. No script. I had two artists in my office, one Chinese and one Spanish. I’d describe the scene to them, they’d draw it and then I’d give it to the so-called writers and say, “Write a scene around this?” "

The script was constantly being rewritten during production, Ben Barzman, Robert Hamer and Ray's wife Betty being among those who contributed. Bernard Gordon says many of the rewrites were done to keep the three stars happy.

Charlton Heston later stated that the working relationship between himself and Ava Gardner was very bad. He claimed that Gardner was very difficult to work with and behaved unprofessionally throughout the filming. In contrast, Heston said he greatly enjoyed working with David Niven. Heston would later work with Gardner again, in the 1974 Universal disaster film Earthquake.

55 Days at Peking, filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, involved the horizontal use of 35mm film, resulting in a 70mm printed film format. The aspect ratio was 2.20:1, with the final image viewed at 2.35:1 on 35mm prints.

Three thousand extras were required, including 1,500 Chinese. There were estimated to be 300 adult Chinese people in Spain so the rest were imported from all over Europe, particularly London, Rome, Marseilles and Lisbon.

On September 11, 1962, Ray had a heart attack and left the production. The film was mostly finished by Andrew Marton, apart from some scenes which were directed by Guy Green who was recommended by Heston (the two men had just done Diamond Head together.) Ray never directed another featre film.

Dong Kingman painted the watercolors for the titles and also made an uncredited appearance in the film.

Filming finished on 20 October, 1962. Heston wrote in his journal, ""What I have learned from this, I hope permanently, is never start a film without a good finished script."

Reception

Box office

55 Days at Peking was a commercial disaster in the U.S. Produced on a then-enormous budget of $17 million, the film's domestic gross was $10 million, earning only $5 million in theatrical rentals. It was the 20th highest-grossing film of 1963. The figures quoted ignore foreign box office receipts where the film was much more successful than in the U.S.

Academy Award nominations

Dimitri Tiomkin received two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song (“So Little Time”, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster), and for Original Music Score.

Historical inaccuracies

Several sections of the film were historically inaccurate or had created roles. Mention is made that a dozen nations from around the world were in Peking's international zone. Only eight nations offered soldiers to fight. Another part showed an English missionary being water tortured, and when the American Major intervened, a Boxer attempted to kill him but he was shot and killed instead by an American Marine. The film implies that this triggered the conflict.

In another part of the film, the English hosted a party celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday. Her birthday was actually May 24, so this could not have happened at the time shown.

The head of the English contingent, Sir Arthur when meeting the Dowager Empress, kicks aside the pillow which traditionally is used to kneel upon. Sir Arthur's son is shot by Boxers in another scene. Niven's character also takes part in blowing up the Chinese munitions dump.

Ava Gardner plays an apparently fictional Russian Baroness in possession of a valuable necklace which she later barters for badly-needed food and medicine for the defenders.

There are several scenes which involve a priest who had a knack for creating weapons.

Finally, as the American Major (Charlton Heston) and Sir Arthur (David Niven) sit atop the wall, they mention it's 5:30 in the morning on August 14, 1900 and the sun is high overhead. At the film's climax, a Boxer attack takes place with bombs dropping everywhere, then armies from all of the nations involved arrive to save the day.

Home media

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD February 28, 2001. A UK Blu-ray from Anchor Bay Entertainment was released in April 2014.

Comic book adaptation

• Gold Key: 55 Days at Peking (September 1963)
• René Bratonne also made a French newspaper comic adaptation of this film, assisted by Pierre Leguen, Claude Pascal and his son, who worked under the pseudonym Jack de Brown.

See also

• List of American films of 1963
• List of historical drama films of Asia

References

• Heston, Charlton (1979). The actor's life : journals, 1956-1976. Pocket Books.
• Server, Lee (2006). Ava Gardner : "love is nothing". St. Martin's Press.

External links

• 55 Days at Peking at IMDb
• 55 Days at Peking at AllMovie
• 55 Days at Peking at the TCM Movie Database
• 55 Days at Peking at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films