55 Days at Peking (1963)

(On Cable TV, December 2022) There is, admittedly, something interesting about 55 Days at Peking—at least in theory. It’s hard to approach a Nicholas Ray film starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven without at least some interest, and seeing that the film is a historical epic set during turn-of-the-twentieth-century Beijing is unusual enough. The story, very loosely adapted from historical facts, is about westerners besieged by Chinese revolutionaries in Beijing’s international compound during the 1900 Boxer Rebellions. In practice, however, it feels both overstuffed and underwritten—the demands of a large-scale epic not being a right match for Ray’s character-driven approach, and yet he can’t balance the demands of an audience-wowing spectacle with the more dramatic moments between the actors. Niven, for all of his usual charm, doesn’t get much to do here and the same goes for Gardner. It’s true that a lot of money went into 55 Days at Peking—lavish recreation of long-gone Peking with consequent set design, costumes and countless extras. Such expense comes with oversight and a desperate drive to complete the project no matter what, and the film’s production history records how Ray was overwhelmed by the scope of the production, the late-arriving script, a production exceeding its schedule, and a lack of chemistry between the lead actors. No surprise then, if it doesn’t feel like anything else in Ray’s filmography (indeed, this would be his last significant film—what followed the following decade-long pause wasn’t a return to form): it’s visually striking, but inert on a dramatic level and far less interesting than you’d expect, considering the film’s production means and lead actors. (Also: don’t expect much of a reflection on colonialism.)  Not every epic film made during Hollywood’s attempt to recapture the TV-viewing audience was successful, and 55 Days at Peking basically broken even.