High Road To China (1983)

Set in the 1920s, a society heiress and flapper (Bess Armstrong) is living the high life in Istanbul. But she needs to find her missing father (Wilford Brimley) or risk losing her inheritance to her father's scheming business partner (Robert Morley). To this end, she hires a womanizing, hard drinking ex-WWI pilot (Tom Selleck) to fly her to Afghanistan where she believes her father might be. Loosely based on the novel by Jon Cleary and directed by Brian G. Hutton (WHERE EAGLES DARE). Tom Selleck was the first choice to play Indiana Jones in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK but he had to pass because he was tied up with the TV series, MAGNUM P.I. This action movie has a lot in common with RAIDERS (though the source material preceded the Spielberg movie) and we get a taste of what Selleck might have been like as Indiana Jones. Initial reviews were tepid but I suspect that's because it was considered a RAIDERS imitator. Today, it holds up very well. Unlike a lot of TV actors trying to transition to the big screen, Selleck has a strong screen presence. The aerial sequences are well done, Selleck and Armstrong have a nice chemistry and there's a beautiful score by John Barry. With Jack Weston, Brian Blessed and Cassandra Gava.