The Adventures of Marco Polo

Product description Marco Polo travels from Venice to Peking where he quickly discovers spaghetti and gunpowder and falls in love with the Emperor's daughter. The Emperor Kublai Khan is a kindly fellow but his evil aide Ahmed wants to get rid of Kublai Khan so he can be emperor and to get rid of Marco Polo so he can marry the princess. Ahmed sends Marco Polo to the West to fight barbarians but he returns just in time to save the day.Run Time: 100 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616075116 Manufacturer No: M107513 Amazon.com Gary Cooper makes a dashing, flirtatious explorer-adventurer in The Adventures of Marco Polo, a twinkling account of Polo's 13th century travels from his home in Venice to China, where he established a new east-west trade route. Nothing comes easy, of course, so the film's script (by author Robert E. Sherwood) finds playboy Polo barely surviving his journey only to be sabotaged in his efforts to forge a relationship with emperor Kublai Khan (George Barbier). Polo?s rival for Khan's loyalty (and the affections of the emperor's daughter, played by the exotic Sigrid Gurie) is the scheming Ahmed (Basil Rathbone), who has the ruler's ear and is wont to punish enemies by chaining them down for the benefit of hungry vultures. The story's general outrageousness extends to Polo?s banishment to a tribe of rebels, led by a henpecked strongman (Alan Hale) whose shrewish wife takes a shine to the Venetian stud and saves him from execution. Directed by Archie Mayo ( The Petrified Forest), The Adventures of Marco Polo is glossy fun, led by Cooper's charming, knowing performance and highlighted by the film?s unwillingness to take anything too seriously. Scenes in which Polo is introduced to two Chinese inventions--spaghetti and gunpowder--are priceless. --Tom Keogh