The Sand Pebbles · 1966

The Sand Pebbles

«This is the heroic story of the men on the U.S.S. San Pablo who disturbed the sleeping dragon of savage China as the threatened world watched in breathless terror.»

Robert Wise · 196 min · United States of America

Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.

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Budget

$12,000,000

Worldwide revenue

$20,000,000

Profit

$8,000,000

Production companies

Robert Wise Productions, Solar Productions, 20th Century Fox

Locations

Filming

República de China

Setting

China

Locations: Wikidata · Data: TMDB / OMDb

Cast

• 

  Steve McQueen

  Jake Holman

• 

  Richard Attenborough

  Frenchy Burgoyne

• 

  Richard Crenna

  Captain Collins

• 

  Candice Bergen

  Shirley Eckert

• 

  Mako

  Po-han

• 

  Larry Gates

  Jameson

• 

  Charles Robinson

  Ensign Bordelles

• 

  Simon Oakland

  Stawski