High Road to China
High Road to China (a.k.a. Raiders of the End of the World) is a 1983 American adventure-romance film set in the 1920s starring Tom Selleck in his first major starring role, playing a hard-drinking biplane pilot hired by society heiress Eve "Evie" Tozer (Bess Armstrong) to find her missing father (Wilford Brimley). The supporting cast includes Robert Morley and Brian Blessed. The Golden Harvest film (released by Warner Bros.) is loosely based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Jon Cleary. However, little beyond character names and the basic premise of an aerial race to China survived the translation to film.
Plot
Eve Tozer is a society heiress and flapper living the high-life in 1920s Istanbul. She needs to find her father, Bradley Tozer, before he is officially declared dead or risk losing her inheritance to his scheming business partner, Bentik. She only has 12 days. Eve hires World War I ace pilot Patrick O'Malley and his aircraft. O'Malley is eager to take the job as he needs to leave town rather urgently himself. Eve, also an accomplished pilot, however, is determined to accompany him in his other aircraft, which causes the first of many arguments on the way from Istanbul to China.
More details
| author | Jon Cleary |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Istanbul |
| director | Brian G. Hutton |
| editor | John Jympson |
| events | aviation |
| genre | adventure romance |
| keywords | ace business partner declared dead dorothy dorothy gish film star final battle flapper flying ace help lillian lillian gish lose scheme silent film star small village world war i |
| musicBy | John Barry |
| producer | Fred Weintraub |
| productionCompany | Orange Sky Golden Harvest |
| publisher | Star China Media Warner Bros. |