High Road to China (1983) Warner Bros./Adventure-Drama RT: 105 minutes Rated PG (some language and violence) Director: Brian G. Hutton Screenplay: Sandra Weintraub Roland and S. Lee Pogostin Music: John Barry Cinematography: Ronnie Taylor Release date: March 18, 1983 (US) Cast: Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong, Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Robert Morley, Brian Blessed, Cassandra Gava, Michael Sheard, Lynda La Plante. Box Office: $28.4M (US)
Rating: **
I’m sure Tom Selleck still rues the day he had to pass on the lead in Raiders of the Lost Ark due to his commitment to his TV series Magnum PI. Rumor has it that High Road to China was given to him as sort of a consolation prize. It’s more like a booby prize. Although regarded as a Raiders imitator, it’s a pale echo of Spielberg’s action-adventure classic at best. It’s about as exciting as a day trip to Duluth. They should have called it Slow Boat to China.
Selleck stars as Patrick O’Malley, a hard-drinking former WWI ace pilot who now offers flying lessons from a field outside Istanbul. He’s approached by spoiled, strong-willed heiress Eve Tozer (Armstrong, Jaws 3D) who desperately needs to locate her missing father before his old business partner Bentik (Morley, The African Queen) has him declared legally dead and she loses her inheritance. This is the source of a major plot hole, but I’ll come back to that.
It’s hate at first sight for O’Malley and Eve. They haggle about the price and Eve coming along on the mission even though she’s an accomplished pilot. They argue about everything, in fact. They can’t stand each other which can only mean they’ll fall in love by movie’s end. They fly off to the wild blue yonder in O’Malley’s biplanes (named Lillian and Dorothy for the Gish sisters) to Afghanistan, Tibet and China where they find Eve’s dad (Brimley, Absence of Malice) getting ready to lead a band of villagers into battle against a Mongolian warlord.
Trust me, High Road to China is not as exciting as it sounds. It’s boring and lifeless, two things a purported adventure movie should NOT be. The action scenes are flatly directed by Brian G. Hutton who saw better days with Where Eagles Dare, Kelly’s Heroes and the underrated cop drama The First Deadly Sin. It says a lot or a little when a movie with a dogfight and a climax involving a cannon and a castle stronghold can’t generate excitement. It barely generates mild interest.
It isn’t enough that High Road to China is dull; it also self-destructs near the end with a gaping plot hole big enough to fly both Lillian and Dorothy through. The central conflict is finding Eve’s father in time to stop Bentik from inheriting his company and wealth. He sends gunmen and a German pilot to stop Eve and O’Malley. When they finally locate Dad, he provides a crucial piece of information that effectively kills Bentik’s nefarious scheme. It’s information that the family lawyer should have already known before he contacted Eve. This whole mess could have easily been avoided. Either he’s a crappy lawyer or the writers didn’t check their work.
The romance between Selleck and Armstrong’s characters in one we’ve seen done better in countless other movies. It follows a predictable trajectory that leads right up to the moment when they kiss passionately after surviving a potentially fatal situation. It’s not that the two actors don’t have chemistry, but it’s nothing particularly special either. Their individual performances are just okay. Morley overacts shamelessly as the villain with nothing better to do than give his flunky a hard time about his bow tie. Jack Weston (The Four Seasons) has some good moments as O’Malley’s mechanic/sidekick. It’s too bad his character doesn’t stick around until the end. No, he doesn’t die; he just stays behind in Tibet while O’Malley takes Eve to her father. Brimley brings a small measure of dignity to the proceedings, but it comes too late to save the movie.
To be fair, High Road to China isn’t a lousy movie; it’s simply a limp one. It moves slowly. It has no flair or style. You never get the sense that the characters are in any real danger even when a crazed Arab chieftan tries to force O’Malley to attack a nearby British regiment. He simply does a spin once he’s in the air and drops the brother holding him at gunpoint to the ground. That scene should have at least been amusing. It falls hard and flat like the rest of the movie. The saddest thing is High Road to China isn’t even a decent bad movie. That’s too bad; I really wanted to say it crashes and burns.
