HIGH ROAD TO CHINA [1983 / 2013] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Take The High Road To Adventure! Escapist Fun and Excitement! A Ripping Yarn!
‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ is a 1983 adventure-romance film, set in the 1920s, starring Tom Selleck as a hard-drinking biplane pilot hired by society heiress Eve 'Evie' Tozer [Bess Armstrong] to find her missing father. The film is set just after the First World War has finished. Eve 'Evie' Tozer is a young spoiled socialist. Patrick O' Malley [Tom Selleck] is a ragged and struggling aviator. From the moment they meet they hate each other, but he is commissioned to aid her in finding her father who has disappeared in Far East Asia.
They must find her father within twelve days otherwise; her whole family fortune goes to her father’s business partner, a murderous man who will stop at nothing to prevent them. Their pursuit of the missing father crosses six countries and two continents, encountering barbaric tribal warfare, peasant revolts and narrow escapes from death at every turn. It truly is an adventure you will never forget. Scored by John Barry (James Bond Franchise) and ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ was one of the highest grossing theatrical releases of 1983.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1984 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films: Nominated: Best Fantasy Film. Nominated: Best Actress for Bess Armstrong.
FILM FACT No.2: While Brian G. Hutton ended up as the final director, but originally ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ was helmed by John Huston, before being replaced by Sidney J. Furie. The musical score was composed by John Barry. It was the 27th highest-grossing film of 1983, bringing in $28,445,927 at the domestic box office. In early development, the film was slated to star Roger Moore and Jacqueline Bisset under the direction of John Huston. Then John Huston and Bissett dropped out and Bo Derek was to co-star with Roger Moore. The budget was to be $16 million. Then Bo Derek dropped out because she only wanted to be directed by her husband. Filming for ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ took place in Yugoslavia with a crew of 231 (145 Yugoslavs, 60 British, 15 Italians, 10 Americans, and one Frenchman). They also added 50 Yugoslav actors to the speaking cast and hired 4,000 extras. Headquarters for the film company was in the small Adriatic coastal town of Opatija, Croatia, located on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Rijeka at the foot of Mt. Ucka. It was filmed in Opatija and Istria, Croatia. Scenes set in Afghanistan were shot at Kamenjak near Rijeka, while scenes set in Turkey were filmed at Volosko, and the final battle in China was shot in Boljun. Originally, Bristol F2B replicas were built by Vernon Ohmert of Ypsilanti, Michigan. This aircraft type was in the novel, but after construction, the replicas were thought to be dangerous to fly at high altitude and were replaced by two Stampe SV-4 biplanes, (G-AZGC and G-AZGE), provided by Bianchi Aviation Film Services.
Cast: Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong, Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Robert Morley, Brian Blessed, Cassandra Gava, Michael Sheard, Lynda La Plante, Timothy Carlton, Shayur Mehta, Terry Richards, Jeremy Child, Peter Llewellyn Williams, Dino Shafeek, Robert Lee, Peggy Sirr, Anthony Chinn, Chua Kahjoo, Ric Young, Simon Prebble, Daniel Clucas, John Higginson, Timothy Bateson, Wolf Kahler, Marc Boyle, Zdenka Hersak, Domagoj Vukusic, Sime Jagarinac, Hai Ching Lim, Kim Rook Teoh and Rick Lester (uncredited)
Director: Brian G. Hutton
Producers: Andre Morgan, Daniel Grodnik, Fred Weintraub, Frederick Muller and Raymond Chow
Screenplay: Jonathan Hales (screenplay) (uncredited), S. Lee Pogostin (screenplay), Sandra Weintraub (screenplay) and Jon Cleary (novel)
Composer: John Barry
Cinematography: Ronald Charles Taylor, B.S.C. (Director of Photography) and Peter Allwork, B.S.C. (Director of Photography of Ariel Sequences)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 105 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: MediumRare Entertainment / FreemantleMedia International / Fortune Star
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ [1983] is a great little adventure-movie starring Tom Selleck as Patrick O’Malley and Bess Armstrong as Eve 'Evie' Tozer and starts off in Constantinople, Turkey, in 1920. The rich society-lady Eve 'Evie' Tozer is living a carefree life until she’s approached by the company solicitor who needs to know her father’s whereabouts. Her father has been missing for a couple of years and is about to be declared legally dead by his business-partner Bentik and he is played hilariously by Robert Morley.
The business-partner Bentik will take over the company as sole owner, thus leaving Eve 'Evie' Tozer without means to support her excessive lifestyle. Her father Bradley Tozer, played by Wilford Brimley is a very successful industrialist, entrepreneur and inventor and was last seen in Afghanistan. Eve 'Evie' Tozer decides to go and find him, but of course, because s Eve 'Evie' Tozer does not want to lose the fortune, has only 12 days to do it, and needs some urgent transportation fast. This is where Patrick O' Malley [Tom Selleck] comes in, who is an ace World War One pilot, but also a drunkard and a womanizer. When we first meet Patrick O' Malley, he is dead-drunk and getting his lights punched out by the husband of one of the women he has been hitting on.
The next morning as Patrick O' Malley is sleeping it off, Eve 'Evie' Tozer impatiently waits for him to wake up, and so she can hire him and his two biplanes named “Dorothy” and “Lillian,” which they are allegedly named after the Gish-sisters apparently. Eve 'Evie' Tozer comes off as a spoiled brat at the start of the film, but money isn’t the only reason she wants to find her father, who she has not seen him in years, so naturally she misses him too!
Patrick O' Malley does not want to take the job and certainly not with Eve 'Evie' Tozer coming along for the ride, but the right amount of money finally makes him change his mind and Eve 'Evie' Tozer tells him that she’s going to fly the second plane, Patrick O' Malley scoffs at her and not believing it, dares her to fly the plane, and in a very hilarious and very funny scene she shows him that she is indeed an accomplished pilot. They soon take off towards their chosen destination, her in one plane and Patrick O' Malley and his mechanic Struts [Jack Weston] in the other.
After a couple more stops in Nepal and India, they finally learn that Bradley Tozer, Eve 'Evie' Tozer’s dad, is supposed to be in China, hence the title of the movie. All through this we’ve been going back and forth between them and London, where Bentik has been plotting their deaths the whole time. This ends in a totally spectacular dogfight between Patrick O' Malley and the man sent to kill them. There are some beautiful aerial shots in ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA,’ not just in this scene, but throughout the entire action packed film. And remember boys and girls, this was in times before the conception CGI was ever thought of, because those are real planes and real stunts!
HIGH ROAD TO CHINA MUSIC TRACK LIST
CHARLESTON (uncredited) (Written by Cecil Mack and James P. Johnson)
REVELRY (uncredited) (Traditional) (Arranged by John Barry and Albert Woodbury)
MOHAMMED’S DANCE (uncredited) (Music by John Leach)
WAZIRI MUSIC (uncredited) (Traditional)
SOULS APPROACHING (uncredited) (Traditional) (Arranged by Albert Woodbury)
I DIDN’T RAISE MY CHILD TO BE A SOLDIER (uncredited) (Traditional) (Music by Al Piantadosi) (Lyric by Al Bryan)
OH WHEN THE SAINTS (Traditional) [Heard on a gramophone in Nepalese village]
Blu-ray Image Quality – MediumRare Entertainment presents us with a very nice 1080p image presentation and enhanced with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This is a vast improvement over the previous inferior DVD release. When the film begins we get a very muddy image quality, which is done on purpose and the function of the credit sequence, which of course is to give the impression of the period of the film that is set in the 1920s which was produced by the optical superimposition that inevitably slightly degrades the image quality. As time goes by the image quality presentation changes significantly after we view Brian G. Hutton's director’s credit. After that the image becomes noticeably much cleaner, but overall it never at any point displays the level of detail and with the close-ups, medium or long shots, the Blu-ray image quality stays basically the same throughout the film. So overall it was quite a pleasant experience and I suspect that there was only really one master negative the companies could get their hands on and this is the best we will ever get to view. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – MediumRare Entertainment brings us the film's original soundtrack that is in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio, and I felt it was pretty average audio fidelity, but with excellent reproduction of the dialogue and sufficient dynamic range to bring out John Barry's beautiful and brilliant film composed music score with this Academy Award® composer. The aerial dogfight sequence shows off the work of the sound editors really well, even if all the sound stays with the front speakers that really show off the aerial dogfight sequence to great effect. So despite only hearing the one soundtrack, I found it slightly lacking in any kind of depth for a stereo soundtrack for a modern film.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailer [1983] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:59] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ and it a really good image presentation, and the image even shows superior contrast compared to the same footage in the film.
Finally, ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ is certainly very similar in style to other high action films released in that period, and it is a very entertaining action adventure film with a great deal of humour. ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ is a lot of old-fashioned fun and sort of revived Tom Selleck’s acting career. But it has the same Saturday-matinee spirit, with director Brian G. Hutton nicely mixing a lot of action with a storyline taken sort of from a book by Jon Cleary that never seems as absurd as it is, allowing the 105 minutes to move by very quickly. Tom Selleck is perfect as a grizzled, boozing biplane pilot whom 1920s flapper Bess Armstrong is forced to hire to help her find her father. Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong make a very agreeable couple, even though their bantering, slowly developing romance is deliberately predictable throughout the film. So all in all ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ is totally light-hearted, fun, clever and highly watchable romantic adventure film that has its dramatic moments but never takes itself too seriously. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
