55 Days at Peking

original title:
55 Days at Peking
other titles:
55 Tage in Peking; Fifty Five Days at Peking; 55 dagar i Peking; 55 giorni a Pechino; Les 55 jours de Pékin; 55 días en Pekín; 55 Dias em Pequim
country / year of production:
USA / 1963
original length:
154 min. , color
premiere:
29 May 1963, New York, USA
genre:
adventure
based on:
director:
Nicholas Ray , Guy Green
film script:
Robert Hamer , Philip Yordan , Bernard Gordon , Ben Barzman
producer:
Samuel Bronston
cinematographer:
Jack Hildyard
editor:
Robert Lawrence
composer:
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin
cast (role):
Charlton Heston (Major Matt Lewis) , Ava Lavinia Gardner (Baronin Natalie Ivanoff) , David Niven (Sir Arthur Robertson) , Flora McKenzie Robson (Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi) , John Ireland (Sergeant Harry) , Charlton Heston , Ava Lavinia Gardner , David Niven , Flora McKenzie Robson , John Ireland
more:
plot synopsis:
Subject of this film is the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 in Beijing. The international embassies are inferior to the insurgents in their numbers to the troops, but they join forces against the insurgent hold supremacy until the arrival of replacement troops through.

The boxers are in an anti-Christian delusion that causes the foreign embassies in Beijing in a state of terror. The beleaguered ambassadors are brought by the assistants in a defensive formation. Meanwhile, they have to endure for the arrival of reinforcements. However, this resistance to be broken with the help of Chinese recruits.

The monumental film whose action and epic are fictitious, and makes its appearance with all-star cast and large-staged battle scenes.
keywords:
outnumbered , siege , infantry , resistance, opposition
war:
Boxer Rebellion (1900)
literature:
Diana Preston. Rebellion in Peking. Die Geschichte des Boxeraufstands. Stuttgart: Dt. Verl.-Anst., 2001.
remarks:
Was filmed in Spain. The replication of Peking was built in the plains outside Madrid.

Was nominated for an Oscar in 1964 for "Best Music".
availability:
VHS, DVD