Colorful but lackluster peplum version (a measure of its clumsiness is the fact that a sarcastic narrator is heard intermittently during the film's initial stages, but after a while he's all but forgotten!), in which a good deal of the detail is identical to the equally fictitious 1938 film: Marco Polo falls for Kublai Khan's daughter, Khan's evil lieutenant - played to the hilt by Robert Hundar - is planning to usurp the throne and marry the princess himself, our hero befriends a band of rebels and leads them - in explosive fashion - into the city, etc. Still, it's not hard to see how Rory Calhoun here is even less suited to the requirements of the role, though he's even more of a ladies' man than Gary Cooper!
In itself, the film is harmless enough but since an even more elaborate (if no more successful) version - the star-studded MARCO THE MAGNIFICENT (1965) - was just behind the corner, this one feels quite redundant; that said, its vast Chinese settings were re-used later for Riccardo Freda's silly hybrid SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961)!
In itself, the film is harmless enough but since an even more elaborate (if no more successful) version - the star-studded MARCO THE MAGNIFICENT (1965) - was just behind the corner, this one feels quite redundant; that said, its vast Chinese settings were re-used later for Riccardo Freda's silly hybrid SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961)!