Destination Gobi

Destination Gobi
Directed byRobert Wise
Screenplay byEverett Freeman
Based onNinety Saddles for Kengtu
1952 Collier's
by Edmund G. Love
Produced byStanley Rubin
StarringRichard Widmark
Don Taylor
Casey Adams
Murvyn Vye
Narrated byRichard Widmark
CinematographyCharles G. Clarke
Edited byRobert Fritch
Music bySol Kaplan
Production
company
20th Century Fox
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • March 20, 1953 (1953-03-20)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,340,000[1]
Box office$1.2 million (US rentals)[2]

Destination Gobi is a 1953 American Technicolor World War II film released by 20th Century-Fox. It was produced by Stanley Rubin, directed by Robert Wise (his first color feature film), and stars Richard Widmark and Don Taylor.

The film is about the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), referred to as Sino-American Combined Operations in the film.[3]

Actor Ernest Borgnine has stated in interviews that he believed that this film, and Widmark's role of CPO Sam McHale, were the basis of the role of Quentin McHale in Borgnine's 1960's television show McHale's Navy.[4]

  1. ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989; ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 248
  2. ^ "The Top Box Office Hits of 1953", Variety, January 13, 1954
  3. ^ "SP:WaW Depot™ :: View topic - SACO - U.S. Navy in China WWII". Spwaw.com. Retrieved 2016-12-21.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Ernest Borgnine on the genesis of McHale's Navy". YouTube.