China Gate (1957)

the audience applauded

Good concept, poorly executed.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Set near the end of the French rule of IndoChina (later Vietnam) a mixed group of French Legionnaires, led by an US demolition expert, must blow up an important Chinese ammunition depot. They also get assistance from a "madam"r of mixed blood. Some of director Sam Fuller's movies tend to be a bit over the top and this one sure belongs in that category. It's a crazy story with crazy characters : there is the US demolition man (Gene Barry) , a competent but unsympathetic bully and racist, the brothel owner (Angie Dickinson) who is the former wife of the US guy (they have a son) and there is the French ragtag legionnaire team (including singer Nat King Cole). As with most of these "menonamission" movies some of the team get bumped of during the journey but they get there ofcourse in the end, no less thanks to the fact that Angie Dickinson seems to have slept with half of the Chinese army stationed in Vietnam.It does move along at fairly brisk pace and Fuller knows how to work with the Cinemascope format but the story, and especially the ending is completely ludicrous and unbelievable (you 'll have to find out for yourselves).Somehow Fuller felt this wasn't exactly a winner so he followed this up (in the same year) with "Run of the Arrow" a though and excellent western starring Rod Steiger, which has become a real classic.

Nat King Cole acts and sings in this one and that just might be the only item of interest in a very bad movie with one distinction: it has Americans fighting in Vietnam in 1957.We're talking about a few mercenaries (like Gene Barry) who just can't get enough military action and just love killing Commies. Ah, the good old days...Angie Dickinson is your typical half-Chinese, half-American loving mother/double agent/saboteur who drinks heavily but never shows it. Her cute little Chinese son has been spurned by father Barry, whose racist tendencies keep erupting throughout the movie.It's violent, stiff and dumb. There's something about movies that use "gate" in the title--"Heaven's Gate," for example.

I was 17 and had just fallen hard in love with Gayle. That night in 1957 when I saw China Gate I was not with Gayle but another. The haunting title track "China Gate" somehow was burned into my memory. I remember little of the movie, but Nat's melancholy rendition was so haunting that when I replay it over in my mind some of that lost-love feeling still tears at my heart 42 years later.

Everything that's wrong about Sam Fuller pictures pops up here, with little of what's right being present. The script is full of silly lines, and the two leads are several miles out of their depth. Nat King Cole is the best thing in the picture, giving a sensitive and believable performance in a supporting role. Not bad enough to be entertaining on that basis, just fairly stupid.