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.
Jack Hildyard's photography is excellent, particularly in getting on the big screen the savage attack scenes which take up the major part of the picture.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
22 Oct 2007
rotten:
Nicholas Ray's last commercial film and second blockbuster for Samuel Bronston (after King of Kings) effectively ended his career as a Hollywood director, and the unwieldiness of this spectacular... helps in part to explain why.