55 Days at Peking
All team (24)
Short description
Set in Peking in 1900, 55 Days at Peking depicts the siege of the foreign legations during the Boxer Rebellion. As nationalist fighters attack foreigners and Chinese Christians with the tacit backing of the imperial court, diplomats, soldiers and civilians from a dozen nations take refuge in the international compound. A multinational defence force, led by an American major, holds out under heavy assault and dwindling supplies while the besieged envoys argue among themselves. A Russian baroness becomes romantically involved with the major as the group waits for a relief column to arrive.
The film was directed by Nicholas Ray, its release following King of Kings in his filmography. Bernard Gordon and Philip Yordan wrote the screenplay, and Samuel Bronston produced through his production company alongside Allied Artists Pictures. Charlton Heston plays Major Matt Lewis, with Ava Gardner as Baroness Natalie Ivanoff and David Niven as the British ambassador Sir Arthur Robertson. Flora Robson appears as the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi, and the cast of 49 credited performers includes John Ireland and Harry Andrews. The production cost about 17 million dollars and took roughly 10 million worldwide, a shortfall against its budget.
Audience response has been moderate. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.7 from around 8,100 votes, and on TMDB it stands at 6.9 from 192 votes. A smaller group of critics gave it 6.4 from seven reviews, close to the audience scores. The film runs 154 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- In addition to directing, Nicholas Ray plays a minor role as the head of the American diplomatic mission in China.
- The film was shot in Spain, and since hundreds of extras were needed for filming, the film company sent its representatives throughout the country and even throughout Europe with instructions to hire every Asian they could find. In 1962, these recruiters reached London, Lyon, and Marseille, resulting in many Chinese restaurants in these cities being closed during the summer of 1962, as the entire staff – and often even the owners themselves – were hired for the film. There were so many of them that for several months, finding an open and functioning Chinese restaurant in Spain, as well as in these three cities, was quite problematic.
- Due to the hostility and isolation of mainland China from the Western world, filming in China itself was impossible. Therefore, on the plains near Madrid, on an area of 60 acres, a full-scale replica of Beijing as it was in 1900 was built (complete with sewage and all other attributes of a city). Some of the imperial Chinese court costumes used in the filming were original costumes from the court of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908). A family from Florence lent them to the film crew, wishing to remain anonymous, and whose representatives saved these costumes after the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901).
- Working on the film was not easy. The filmmakers were plagued by financial difficulties, there were conflicts within the cast, and director Nicholas Ray (1911-1979) argued so much with producer Samuel Bronston (1908-1994) that he eventually left the project, shortly after which he suffered a heart attack. Andrew Marton (1904-1992) and Guy Green (1913-2005) completed the filming, although their names were not listed in the credits.
- The filmmakers were so short on extras and equipment that they had to borrow both from the crew of David Lean's (1908-1991) drama 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), which was being filmed in Almería and Seville at the time.
- Charlton Heston (1923-2008) initially did not want to take on the role, but after his first meeting with director Nicholas Ray and screenwriter Philip Jordan (1914-2003), he found himself seated exactly between them on the plane, and they convinced him to agree to the filming.
- The film was running several weeks behind schedule when Charlton Heston suggested moving from the hotel in Madrid to the makeup room directly on the set to make up for lost time, filming day and night with different crews. As a result, filming was completed on schedule.
- According to Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner's character (1922-1990) was 'killed off' to relieve the producer and director of the need to indulge the actress's whims.
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