bkoganbing With tongue firmly in cheek Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong and the rest of the cast give us a spoof of all those old action/adventure flicks from the 30s and 40s. The film is set in Kuomintang China which has always been a good source for these films, a fluid political situation, a weak central government and a lot of warlords in business for themselves.Industrialist Wilford Brimley has gone to Asia and vanished, but that hasn't stopped his daughter from spending his money like it had no end. But the end might be coming as his partner Robert Morley wants him declared legally dead and by terms of their partnership he gets control of the company and daughter Bess Armstrong is out in the cold. She might have to do like others do and actually go to work.Heaven forfend so she hires former air ace Tom Selleck who comes with two World War I era biplanes and a mechanic played by Jack Weston. This partnership takes her to Afghanistan, Nepal, and finally the westernmost province of China Sinkiang in search of Brimley.Along the way all the old clichés concerning these films is employed and of course chemistry cannot be denied. Selleck and Armstrong become an item and Selleck finds some use for his former aviation combat skills.By the way I loved and I'm sure you'll love Brimley's explanation as to why Armstrong will be well taken care of despite efforts to the contrary.Those efforts are being directed by Robert Morley who I can never resist seeing in any film. There's also a nice performance by Brian Blessed as an Afghan warlord.Tom Selleck's fans should love High Road To China.

Blueghost The last of a great breed. This is truly one of the last of the great classic films, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Simply put, films like this are a thing of the past, as has been shown in the last twenty years. They appeal to too narrow an audience by today's corporate marketing genius's standards (heavy sarcasm), and because of the cross market appeal this film has, it's guaranteed to be a box-office bust (again, buy today's standards).Technically; the Kahn sequence seemed a touch slow and contrived, as well as the British army sequence and some of the other character oriented scenes, but still necessary. Regardless, the camera work, locations and art direction are top notch. Good stunts, excellent flying sequences, and, most importantly of all, there's no CGI to ruin the movie. Heck, there aren't even miniatures in this film! Everything you see in this film IS REAL. Aeroplanes, explosions, sets, locations, the whole shootin-match. :-) (so to speak).No awards will be won by any single actor, actress or crew member. But, as a whole, this is a spectacular film that I really want for my DVD collection. Regrettably the only version available to us in the United States is the one provided on Youtube.Romantic and adventurous settings, locations and story makes this one not to miss. Sellick and Armstrong definitely sync well together on screen.*RESCREENED JAN 10th, 2010* My new title; "Indiana Jones Grows Up"I got my DVD of this film a few days ago, and popped it into my region 2 player after work. All I can say is I'm truly glad I have this in my collection, and I think I appreciate the film now more than ever. What we have here is the bratty socialite connecting with the hero-has-been who's never grown up. She's a socialite aviatrix with womanly wiles, while he's the rugged man of the world, but prefers to stay in his immature mold and lost to the world. Both have lessons to teach one another, and it pays off. I find it a heart warming film that I think couples true of heart to another can share and enjoy.Regrettably my region 2 DVD is not letter boxed, and the transfer, though respectable, is not what it could have been. Still, it's the only game in town as far a DVD version of this film goes, and I'm okay with that. Though shame on the powers that be for not making this film a priority for market.Well, I don't have too much more to say other than I'm going to watch it again. :-)Enjoy.*EDIT JULY 10th, 2012* I got a brand new letterboxed and remastered DVD from Hen's Tooth Video. A fantastic transfer. Excellent quality. Many kudos to the people at Hen's Tooth. The film looks better than ever before. Pick up a copy today.

sddavis63 I'll say flat out that "High Road To China" is a lot of fun to watch. It features pretty decent performances from the two leads: Tom Selleck as ace pilot Patrick O'Malley and Bess Armstrong as rich girl Eve Tozer, and it has some good photography and camera work, and some decent action scenes. Unfortunately, the story itself leaves much to be desired. Predictable almost from the start, it doesn't provide enough "meat" to really captivate a viewer.Eve is a rich girl in the 1920's who stands to lose everything unless she can find her father (played by Wilford Brimley once he's discovered,) who was last seen three years before in Afghanistan. She hires O'Malley to take her to the region, and the pair begin their search, complete with a bit of a love/hate relationship with each other (it starts with more hate than love, then evolves.) To make their search more complicated, Eve's father's former business partner (played by Michael Morley) - who stands to take over the business (and thus Eve's money) unless her dad is found quickly - has people out trying to stop them. There were problems with the story. The efforts to stop them never really seemed threatening - actually, none of the predicaments they found themselves in seemed threatening; there was never any real sense that Eve and O'Malley were in any real danger. It was far too easy to find Eve's dad. True, they had to make a lot of stops, but every time they stopped they found someone who knew just who to go to for information. Interestingly enough even though I thought Selleck and Armstrong gave pretty good performances, I also didn't feel that they sparkled with chemistry together - the "romance" elements of the story seemed forced and insincere to me. (I confess that I did like the last line of the movie, given to Selleck, who closes by admitting to Eve that he had made a mistake. When she asks what it was, you expect him to say "falling in love with you." Instead he admits essentially the same thing, but by way of a joke - "I should have sold you as a slave when I had the chance!" The line has to be seen in its context to really be appreciated.) It's a bit of an escapist movie, I suppose - and nothing wrong with it in that sense, but it's not very meaty, it's far too predictable in every way and it won't leave you breathless. 5/10

MDJPATTON I really enjoyed the movie immensely. The characters were all excellent. Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong had great chemistry. Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Robert Morley all provided superb support in their character roles. The wonderful music was provided by John Barry. The aerial duel with the German ace was well choreographed. The escape from the Arab village was exciting. The final battle sequences were very well done. If the movie has a flaw, it's predictable. However, it's great fun and I enjoy romantic adventures in the Hollywood style of the 30's, 40's and 50's. What's wrong with good clean exciting romantic entertainment? They need to make more these pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing it again!