Main Cast: Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson, Nat "King" Cole, Lee Van Cleef, George Givot, Warren Hsieh, Paul Dubov
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
Plot
Writer-director Samuel Fuller applies his kino-fist to this raw-boned war drama -- one of the first American films to deal with Vietnam. The film concerns the battle between the Vietnamese and the Chinese, through the efforts of a small band of soldiers to locate and destroy a hidden communist arms depot. Gene Barry stars as Sgt. Johnny Brock, the cynical leader of the patrol, who is an American Korean War veteran. Leading the expedition to find the munitions dump is the half-Asian Lucky Legs (Angie Dickinson), Brock's ex-wife. One of Brock's less-endearing qualities is his rabid racism -- he can't accept the fact that their five-year-old son is completely Oriental in appearance. The other members of the patrol are also haunted by past memories -- Goldie (Nat "King" Cole) is a veteran of Korea and World war II who hates war and wants to see peace at all costs; Corporal Pigalle (George Givot) is an ex-French gendarme who doesn't like taking orders; and Private Andreades (Gerald Milton), is a hard-nosed Greek expatriate. When the patrol arrives at the compound, they are greeted by Major Cham (Lee Van Cleef), the communist commander who immediately falls in love with Lucky Legs -- complicating the situation immensely. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Gerald Milton - Pvt. Andreades; Neyle Morrow - Leung; Marcel Dalio - Father Paul; Maurice Marsac - Col. De Sars; Paul Busch - Cpl. Kruger; Sasha Harden - Pvt. Jaszi; James Hong - Charlie; Weaver Levy - Khuan; Walter Soo Hoo - Guard
Sergeant Brock (Gene Barry) and Goldie (Nat King Cole) are American Korean War veterans now serving as French Foreign Legionmercenaries in the First Indochina War. Angie Dickinson plays a "half caste" Chinese Eurasian named "Lucky Legs" who resorts to smuggling to feed her five-year-old son she had with Barry. Barry abandoned her and the child when it was born with Asian features, feeling a "half breed" would not be welcome in America; an attitude towards miscegenation prevalent at the time. Lucky is recruited by the French high command to use her knowledge to guide a demolitionsquad of Legionnaires led by Brock to blow up a hidden Viet Minh ammunition dump on the border with Red China. In return for her services, Lucky is promised by the French that they will arrange for her son's evacuation to America.
The patrol is filled with animosity between the former lovers, booby traps, and Viet Minh patrols. On arrival at the ammunition dump hidden in a mountain, Dickinson discovers the commanding officer is a former friend Major Cham (Lee Van Cleef) who wants to take her and her son to a new life in Moscow. Van Cleef plays his role as a high flyer corporate executive (in the manner of Fuller's gangsters in Underworld USA) marked for great things in the world of international communism. The sabotage mission is successful but at great cost; Lucky dies blowing up the dump. Brock reconciles with his child and is last seen walking along holding his hand in preparation for returning to America, as Cole reprises the title song.
Production
Fuller selected singer Cole after being impressed with his face on a record album cover. Though Darryl F. Zanuck said that Cole received more money in a few weeks then the entire budget of the film, Fuller arranged to meet Cole. Cole and his wife were interested in Goldie as an opposite to the racist Brock and agreed to work at a minimum salary. China Gate was the last score that Victor Young composed; the film was finished by his friend Max Steiner. Harold Adamson wrote lyrics to Young's beautiful theme for the film. Though originally not intending to sing in the film, Cole sang China Gate as he walked through a bombed out village making it a memorable tune and a fitting tribute to the late Victor Young.
Though ludicrous by today's standards, Angie Dickinson makes the most out of her role. An actual Asian actress playing a love interest opposite a white European star was a rarity in Hollywood at the time. The Eurasian Dickinson plays proves attractive to Brock, and to mainstream audiences of the time. Her character is allowed to speak Fuller's view on race relations and her character is respected both by the French military and by a local priest whose life Lucky Legs had saved. Dickinson's character is similar to Fuller's prostituteprotagonists in Pickup on South Street and The Naked Kiss. The dangerous patrol allows for a gradual change of heart for Barry's character.
Banned in France
Before China Gate was to be released, Fuller received a call from the French Consul-General in Los Angeles, Romain Gary, inviting him to lunch. Gary said the film's prologue was too harsh towards France and asked Fuller to change it. Fuller did not, but the two became firm friends with similar interests. The film was never released in France.
Many years later, Fuller filmed a story of Gary's, White Dog (1982), that Fuller and Curtis Hanson adapted for the screen.[1]
References
^ Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face, Alfred A Knopf, 2002.
Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face, Alfred A Knopf, 2002.
