Another movie review for the day

Rico says that some historical movies have unintended historical comedy in them, and 55 Days at Peking is one of them. Oh, it's not the story itself (the Boxer Rebellion not noted for being very funny), but for the juxtaposition of impending reality. What's that mean? That means that, in the beginning of the film, there's a scene of the incredible cacophony of all the legations raising their flags, of a morning, at the same time, and all their bands playing all their national anthems at the same time. (The Chinese, of course, think this is hysterical.)
With the likes of Charleton Heston, David Niven, Ava Gardner, and Harry Andrews in it, however, it's still a pretty good movie.
The funny part is that it's 1900, of course, and the line of legations hasn't a clue what, in the next 45 years, will befall them: the Americans, the British, the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Japanese, and the Russians, all of whom will create some serious differences (in some cases, a couple of times) to sort out. The Spanish will have their own private war in the '30s, as will the Chinese in the '40s, and the Swiss will, of course, avoid all of it.
Then there's the fifty-plus years of the Cold War, the division and reunification of Germany, and various troubles in a dozen other places (Korea comes to mind)...

Another historical note, from a commenter on IMDB:

One of the few men to receive two Congressional Medals of Honor (General Custer's brother was another) was Sergeant Dan Daly (photo). He earned his first in Peking; toward the end of the battle, there were not enough men to man all the walls, so some walls were manned and some were not. He volunteered to be posted three hundred yards in front of one of the unmanned walls, and from there fire a warning shot if the Chinese attacked. When they attacked his portion of the wall, Daly fired his shot, and the Chinese then shot and stabbed him and left him for dead. After he regained consciousness, he patched himself up and, to quote from the citation: "Mounted an assault upon the enemy, taking them by surprise from the rear and re-captured the wall, which he held until reinforcements arrived."
The man is probably better known for the phase Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?, which he yelled at the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War One, when he and some other Marines led the attack that took German positions there. But that's another story...

Rico says guys like Daly are worth remembering, and one of Rico's other heroes, Smedley Butler, had this to say about Daly: "The fightin'est Marine I ever knew!" From Butler, that's high praise indeed...