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.

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.

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

Ford Rainey

Harris

Joe Turkel

Bronson

Crew

Robert Anderson

Screenplay

Richard McKenna

Novel

Robert Wise

Director

William Reynolds

Editor

Walter M. Scott

Set Decoration

William Kiernan

Set Decoration

John Sturtevant

Set Decoration

Boris Leven

Production Design

Renié

Costume Design

Joseph MacDonald

Director of Photography

Clips & Videos

The Sand Pebbles Trailer

Alan Spencer on THE SAND PEBBLES