And no kidding.
Ah, OK… let’s have a laugh, shall we?

If you have been for a while on my blog, you know I like very much High Road to China, both the Tom Selleck/Bess Armstrong 1983 movie, and the Jon Cleary 1977 novel of the same name on which the movie was very loosely based. It’s old fashioned high adventure, set in the Roaring Twenties, featuring biplanes, flappers, the Silk Road, Chinese warlords and whatnot.
What’s not to love, right?
I mean, look at that poster!

It can be argued that The High Road to China had a strong influence on me – my first novel, The Ministry of Thunder, did take inspiration from Cleary’s book and the movie, and my latest non-fiction book – Piemontesi ai Confini del Mondo, owes its titles to the Italian title of High Road to China: Avventurieri ai Confini del Mondo.

So yes, in Italy the film is called Adventurers at the Ends of the World, that is not a completely awful title. It’s epic and adventurous enough, and gives you a nice idea of what to expect.
The book, as far as I know, was never translated in my language.
And the movie is not particularly popular or well known. It’s sort of a cult movie.

But what you know, there’s a new Indiana Jones movie out, and we are always ready for a new cash grab.
So the Italian distributor of the movie decided to reissue the DVD of the 1983 High Road to China, adding a simple, eye-catching tag-line…

“La vera storia di Indiana Jones” – that is, The true story of Indiana Jones.

Now, Cleary wrote his novel in 1977, while on the other side of the Pacific (Cleary was Australian) George Lucas was shooting Star Wars. He never heard of Indiana Jones, and I seriously doubt Lucas or Spielberg or Lawrence Kasdan ever read Jon Cleary’s novel, and as for the plots…

a. in the 1930s, a swashbuckling archaeologist fights the Nazis to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant. The movie is a pulp fantasy mostly set in Egypt.

b . in the 1920s, an alcoholic Great War ace is hired to fly a heiress halfway across the world to look for her kidnapped father. The movie is a straightforward adventure yarn, mostly set in Central Asia and China.

I laughed out loud when I saw that tagline, and I will never again be surprised at the length some shameless people will go to make a buck and bamboozle the unwary.

Anyway, this is all – just a lark.
But if you’ve never seen it, check out High Road to China.
It has nothing, but nothing to do with Indiana Jones, but it’s fine like this.