55 Days at Peking
A handful of men and women held out against the frenzied hordes of bloodthirsty fanatics!
Country
Production
Budget
$17 000 000
Box office
$10 000 000
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Samuel Bronston, Michał Waszyński, Alan Brown
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Veniero Colasanti, John Moore
Audition
Maude Spector
Editing
Robert Lawrence
Whole Team (24)
Whole Team (24)
Short description
Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.
What's left behind the scenes
- In addition to directing, Nicholas Ray plays a minor role as the head of the American diplomatic mission in China.
- The film was shot in Spain, and since hundreds of extras were needed for filming, the film company sent its representatives throughout the country and even throughout Europe with instructions to hire every Asian they could find. In 1962, these recruiters reached London, Lyon, and Marseille, resulting in many Chinese restaurants in these cities being closed during the summer of 1962, as the entire staff – and often even the owners themselves – were hired for the film. There were so many of them that for several months, finding an open and functioning Chinese restaurant in Spain, as well as in these three cities, was quite problematic.
- Due to the hostility and isolation of mainland China from the Western world, filming in China itself was impossible. Therefore, on the plains near Madrid, on an area of 60 acres, a full-scale replica of Beijing as it was in 1900 was built (complete with sewage and all other attributes of a city). Some of the imperial Chinese court costumes used in the filming were original costumes from the court of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908). A family from Florence lent them to the film crew, wishing to remain anonymous, and whose representatives saved these costumes after the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901).
- Working on the film was not easy. The filmmakers were plagued by financial difficulties, there were conflicts within the cast, and director Nicholas Ray (1911-1979) argued so much with producer Samuel Bronston (1908-1994) that he eventually left the project, shortly after which he suffered a heart attack. Andrew Marton (1904-1992) and Guy Green (1913-2005) completed the filming, although their names were not listed in the credits.
- The filmmakers were so short on extras and equipment that they had to borrow both from the crew of David Lean's (1908-1991) drama 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), which was being filmed in Almería and Seville at the time.
- Charlton Heston (1923-2008) initially did not want to take on the role, but after his first meeting with director Nicholas Ray and screenwriter Philip Jordan (1914-2003), he found himself seated exactly between them on the plane, and they convinced him to agree to the filming.
- The film was running several weeks behind schedule when Charlton Heston suggested moving from the hotel in Madrid to the makeup room directly on the set to make up for lost time, filming day and night with different crews. As a result, filming was completed on schedule.
- According to Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner's character (1922-1990) was 'killed off' to relieve the producer and director of the need to indulge the actress's whims.
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