The Sand Pebbles *** (1966, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen, Richard Crenna) – Classic Movie Review 3185

In 1926, the gunboat USS San Pablo is patrolling the Yangtse River during the Chinese revolution and must rescue stranded missionaries at the China Light Mission. Producer-director Robert Wise’s adventure drama about American gunboat diplomacy in China may be set in the 1920s, but Steve McQueen’s loner engineer, Jake Holman, has a distinctive 1960s flavour. And so does the film with its implied commentary on the then current US war situation in Vietnam.

Alas, this is a lumbering and interminable movie, battling with Robert Anderson’s clumsily constructed, episodic screenplay, based on the novel by Richard McKenna, in turn based on real incidents. But, fortunately, it is mostly glued together by one of McQueen’s most charismatic performances, with Richard Attenborough (as second class machinist mate Frenchy Burgoyne), Candice Bergen (as missionary teacher Shirley Eckert) and Richard Crenna (as Captain Collins) giving him commendable, stand-out support.

First-class director Wise ensures that it is a well-made item, with fine technical credentials and, especially, outstanding cinematography by Joseph MacDonald that ideally needs a big screen to do it justice. It swung an Oscar nomination for Best Film, one of eight nominations that didn’t produce a single win. McQueen was also Oscar nominated, in his sole ever nomination.

Also in the cast are Marayat Andriane (aka Emmanuelle Arsan), Mako, Larry Gates, Simon Oakland, Gavin MacLeod, Charles Robinson, Ford Rainey, Joe Turkel, Joe Di Reda, Richard Loo, Barney Phillips, Gus Trikonis, Shepherd Sanders, James Jeter, Tom Middleton, Paul Chinpae, Tommy Lee, James Hing, Stephen Jahn, Stephen Ferry, Ted Fish, Loren Janes, Glenn R Wilder, Gil Perkins, Beulah Quo, Walter Reed, Ben Wright, Harry Wang and Jay Allan Hopkins.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3185

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