High Road to China

My husband and I saw this many years ago and loved it. We couldn't find it anywhere until now. Great movie.

This has been difficult to find for many years, which I never understood. I loved the movie...

Product was as described.New in packaging.

relaxing entertainment

I like most things Tom Selleck has starred in and this is one of them casting him in a role I had not seen him play before. Made me appreciate his versatility as an actor. The flying stunts and the story were suspenseful.

The reputation of "High Road to China" has suffered over the years for two reasons: it was seen as an Indiana Jones wanna-be, and it has been just about impossible to find on home video. Forget the Indiana Jones "what-if's" surrounding Tom Selleck, it's not that kind of movie at all. There is nothing mysterious or supernatural, and the hero isn't driven by fortune and glory. It's an old-school road movie about a spoiled heiress who hires a washed-up drunk of a pilot to take her from Istanbul into Afghanistan (eventually to China) in search of her missing father, whom she must prove is still alive or lose all her inheritance to her father's villainous partner. There's more in common here with "It Happened One Night" or "African Queen" than with "Raiders."I saw this in the theater when I was a teenager, and loved it--Tom Selleck was cool, tough, and funny, Bess Armstrong was sassy and cute, and the flying sequences through Nepal were amazing with that beautiful soundtrack. Watching it now when I am three decades older, I love it even more. Not to read too much into what is ultimately a romantic comedy, there is a surprising amount of commentary on the impact of the Great War. Selleck's character is an American ace from World War One who has fallen into drunken poverty, and in a scene where he is telling war stories to a group of young British pilots, we see that part of the reason may be guilt over the men he has killed. But violence seems to follow him whether he wants it or not; he becomes entangled in other people's conflicts, both political and personal, and though he wants to do the right thing he is no longer sure what that means.Bess Armstrong's role is written with a surprising amount of depth. She is a "rich spoiled brat" as Selleck's character charges, but the movie is not about her getting her comeuppance; she is plucky and spunky, but she is not infallible, and it is not about her showing up Selleck's character as a chauvinist. She seems like a worldy-wise flapper, but is genuinely outraged when she thinks he has taken advantage of her. She begins rather childish and shrill, but as she learns more about her father's mysterious fate she becomes more mature and determined, as her concern goes from her financial security to a fear for what may have happened to him. Most of all, the character's mood turns on a dime, and Armstrong plays it with such skill that it makes me wonder why we never saw her in more leading roles like this.From a slow start, Selleck and Armstrong build up a real chemistry, and by the end of the movie the real suspense is not whether the good guys will defeat the bad guys, but whether these two will finally stop bickering long enough to give us that passionate kiss we know is coming. (You won't be disappointed!)

The year 1983. We are watching re-issues of Raiders of the lost Ark in the theatres, and longing for the second Indiana Jones to come out. Along comes this romantic comedy-adventure flick, scored beautifully by John Barry, with great cinematography and terrific performances by Tom Selleck (at his peak) and Bess Armstrong, and supported by the funniest Jack Weston, and what a delightful movie to watch. Obviously obscured by the Indiana Jones flicks, it comes off theatres, and finds its way to VHS, but never to DVD in the U.S. Don't bother with the European DVD imports, they are just transfers from the horrible VHS which was framed at 4x3 aspect ratio. The theatrical presentation was 1.85:1. I am hoping the Blu-ray preserves the original ratio. I can't wait to see it like I did almost 30 years ago.An UPDATE to this review on 4-22-12: Since Amazon placed me on backorder with the Blu-ray temporarily out of stock, I ordered it from a marketplace seller who had it in stock, and I received it in 3 days. I was a little scared by the reviews I had read about the quality of the blu-ray, but I was not that dissapointed, to be quite honest. Having projected this movie several times on film ( I was a part-time projectionist while in college), the image quality of the Blu-ray is identical to the motion picture print. The movie never had very saturated colors, but they were very natural looking. Also, some scenes were apparently shot with a diffusion filter, making them look sightly foggy. Remember this is a 30 year old negative, and probably not heavily digitally restored. However the transfer to video is extremely clean with no scratches or dust marks at all. I actually was more dissapointed with the soundtrack. It was a 2-track DTS but had no surround encoding. I could not get my receiver to enhance it with any of the surround settings, and I was not able to get any sound from the rear channels at all!.I want to thank Hens Tooth Video for making this great film available to us, and for doing a terrific job with the source they were given by the film's rights' proprietors. Shame to Warner Brothers, the original releasing company, for not restoring this great movie themselves to the maximum, particularly the soundtrack. I still recommend it as the BEST disc around for HIGH ROAD TO CHINA!

Understanding this was done to exploit Tom Selleck's original casting as Indiana Jones... I enjoyed it more when I first saw it in 1983 than I did now. Maybe all the tropes have already been used in subsequent films, maybe Selleck's character wasn't as rounded as I thought it should have been. In any case, don't consider it a waste of time to watch, but somewhat regretful that I rented it instead of waiting for it to come back to streaming free.

Produit neuf et conforme à la description. Envoie Amazon donc rien à redire.

I finally tracked down the DVD of this movie years ago, but now that I’ve replaced all my DVD players with blu-ray machines, the European format of the DVD would no longer work. I was very happy to find on Amazon, but somewhat concerned with reviews that said it was grainy. I didn’t find it grainy at all, and was very satisfied with the picture quality. I’ve attached a few pics taken with my phone while I was watching. A 1983 classic, and a “must” to own!

Synchronisation leider nur in Englisch das macht aber den Film so wertvoll

Molto soddisfatto,puntuale la consegna

HIGH ROAD TO CHINA [1983 / 2013] [Blu-ray] 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: Awards and Nominations: 1984 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films: Nominated: Best Fantasy Film. Nominated: Best Actress for Bess Armstrong.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. HuttonProducers: Andre Morgan, Daniel Grodnik, Fred Weintraub, Frederick Muller and Raymond ChowScreenplay: Jonathan Hales (screenplay) (uncredited), S. Lee Pogostin (screenplay), Sandra Weintraub (screenplay) and Jon Cleary (novel)Composer: John BarryCinematography: Ronnie Taylor (Director of Photography) and Peter Allwork, B.S.C. (Director of Photography of Ariel Sequences)Image Resolution: 1080p [Technicolor]Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1Audio: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo AudioSubtitles: EnglishRunning Time: 105 minutesRegion: Region B/2Number of discs: 1Studio: MediumRare Entertainment / Fortune StarAndrew’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, 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, 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, so those are real planes and real stunts!Blu-ray Image Quality – MediumRare presents us with a 1080p image presentation and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. This is a vast improvement over the previous inferior DVD release. When the film starts we get a very muddy quality of the image, 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 presents us with the film's original soundtrack that is in 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio, and I felt it was pretty average audio fidelity, with excellent reproduction of 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, 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 depth for a stereo soundtrack for a modern film.Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:Theatrical Trailer [1983] ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ [1983] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:59] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film, and it a really good presentation, and the image even shows superior contrast compared to the same footage in the film.Finally, ‘HIGH ROAD TO CHINA’ [1983] 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 AficionadoLe Cinema ParadisoUnited Kingdom