HIGH ROAD TO CHINA
US, 1983, 100 minutes, Colour.
Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong, Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Robert Morley.
Directed by Brian G. Hutton.
High Road To China is action adventure - an '80s equivalent of Saturday matinee material. It was one of the first action adventures made after the success of Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. There are more than passing resemblances. In fact, the star Tom Selleck (of Magnum P.I., Lasseter) was the original choice for Raiders. He is a pleasant laconic, tongue-in-cheek hero. He is more than matched by Bess Armstrong as vigorous heroine (The Four Seasons, Jaws III). There is entertaining support from Jack Weston as Struts, the hero's buddy, from Robert Morley, Brian Blessed masquerading as an Afghanistan chief, and Wilford Brimley. There is good location photography (Yugoslavia was used) and many action and stunt sequences. Direction is by Brian G. Hutton, best remembered for such action adventures as Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes. He also directed dramas The Pad, X, Y & Z, The First Deadly Sin.
1. Entertaining action adventure? '80s matinee material? The audience entering into the good spirit of the characters, the action, the stunts?
2. Location photography? The use of Yugoslavian landscapes? Recreating the atmosphere of Turkey, Afghanistan, China? Action sequences? Planes, cars, bombs? Stunt work? The special effects? The rousing musical score?
3. Audience acceptance of the genre and conventions? The wilful heroine? The laconic hero? The battle of the sexes - 1920s adventurer style? The evil British businessman? The Afghanistan chief? The lost father? Action along the way - characterisation for the situations and adventure?
4. The implausibility of the plot - Istanbul 1920, the Roaring '20s, people stranded in Istanbul? Murder attempts in the streets, Eve Tozer and her seeking her father, Patrick O'Malley as an ex-air ace, ladies' man, despising the rich, his planes, his buddy? The control of Bentik from England? The adventures along the way, tribes, intrigue, action in China? Sufficient for the plot, for action adventure?
5. Tom Selleck's style as O'Malley? In Istanbul, the adventurer, his planes? money deals? The antagonism towards Eve - obviously heading towards love but with much altercation and suggestion along the way? Friendship with Struts? Overcoming difficulties, terrain, arriving in China, finding Eve's father, the action adventure and the wars? The happy ending?
6. Eve as the stirring wealthy heiress and adventuress of the '20s? Boldness, style, wealth? Her capacity for flying? Her always one-upping O'Malley? Antagonism, the battle of the sexes - leading to love? The humour of their battles? Finding her father? An admirable heroine?
7. Jack Weston's comic style as Struts? Visual and verbal humour?
8. Bentik as villain - with the exaggerated but enjoyable Robert Morley touch? The arch-evil manipulator? Greed? Callous in his keeping his dastardly deeds at a distance?
9. The streets of Istanbul, the Turks? The Afghanistanis - and the swarthy and adventurous Barbarians! Hospitality? Covetousness and lust? The bombings and the battles?
10. The Chinese sequences - Eve's father, his reputation. China. the wars and siege?
11. An entertaining blend of action adventure? Send-up humour? A reinforcing of the roles of hero and heroine - but with the '80s feminist touch?
