4 Star

1920s High Jinx.

Prepare yourself for some aerial adventure in this restoration of the 1983 High road to China. This Brian G. Hutton (Kelly’s Heroes, Where Eagles Dare) highflying trip across the continent has all the action of wars and with the old hate you/love you thrown in to keep you on the edge of your seat, as you take in the wonderful filming locations. High Road to China is a great afternoon film to own on Blu-ray.

Nineteen-twenties Istanbul, and Charlie Shea (Michael Sheard, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, The Sweeney: Series Two) is frantically trying to find Eve Tozer (Bess Armstrong, The Four Seasons, Jaws 3-D) the society heiress and flapper living the high-life in Istanbul. He needs to find her, as an attempt on his life has already been made.

He finds her having a whale of a time, dancing on the tables in her flapper dress. When he finally gets her attention, he has the solemn news that her fathers business partner Bentik (Robert Morley, The African Queen, Theatre Of Blood) wants to declare her missing father Bradley Tozer (Wilford Brimley, Cocoon, The China Syndrome) dead, so that he can claim the company for himself.

How am I going to live without money!

Eve hasn’t heard from her father for years, and the last sighting of him was in Afganistan, and with only twelve day to get her father to a British court, she had better get a wriggle-on. When the RAF can’t help she has to turn to the one man who has two planes, O’Malley (Tom Selleck, Magnum, P.I. (TV Series), Blue Bloods), and his mechanic Struts (Jack Weston, The Thomas Crown Affair, Dirty Dancing). She isn’t impressed with the drunkard O’Malley, but after a “flying lesson” she agrees that he is fit for the job, but the negotions for price take a while. The next morning they set off into the blue trying to find her dear old father.

Said father isn’t easy to find, plus they have Bentik’s men on their tail, they are in for a lot of adventure, and one of those adventures is a Khan played by non other than Brian Blessed (The Further Adventures of the Musketeers, The Hound of the Baskervilles).

High Road to China is available on Blu-ray

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• NEW Free As A Bird, interview with actress Bess Armstrong
• NEW Taking the High Road, interview with associate producer Frederick Muller
• NEW Vic Pratt on High Road to China
• Original Theatrical Trailer