Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JohnHowardReid A Globe Enterprises Production released by Twentieth Century-Fox. Copyright 1957 by Globe Enterprises Productions. New York opening at the Paramount: 22 May 1957. U.S. release: May 1957. U.K. release: 7 July 1957. Australian release: 1 August 1957. 97 minutes. (Censored to 95 minutes in Australia, cut to 90 minutes in the U.K.)COMMENT: Inserts of newsreel footage tend to lift the believable elements in the plot of this Samuel Fuller production set in Indo- China in 1954, but the plot and its enactment does start to wear somewhat thin as the footage wends its way towards its bitter-sweet climax. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller, this flick lacks the punch necessary to qualify it as exceptional material, but should hold some interest for most viewers. Aside from its unique locale, its most diverting ingredient is Nat "King" Cole, who plays a top role and who also sings the title song.Set as it is in war-ridden Indo-China, the theme is down-beat most of the way. Locations are either war-ravaged villages or jungle outposts through which a Foreign Legion party, guided by a Eurasian saloon owner, makes its way to the China Gate, where it hopes to destroy the main enemy arsenal. Deserted by her husband, Barry, when their baby was born, Miss Dickinson, has become famous throughout Indo-China as "Lucky Legs", the saloon proprietor, and is trusted and popular with both the Reds and the French. In fact, the Foreign Legion commander asks her to guide a party of volunteers through Red lines to the China Gates, where the main bomb and shell dump has been kept carefully hidden in a labyrinth of tunnels that cannot be detected from the air. Miss Dickinson refuses when she learns Barry is among the volunteers, but consents when Marsac promises passage to America for the boy in return for her services. Needless to say, the trek from Son Toy through the lines is dangerous and tedious.Thanks to the involvement offered by the wide CinemaScope screen, this otherwise rather routine war picture, is made reasonably exciting. The players try hard against an often sticky script. The principals are further hampered by their somewhat colorless on- screen personalities. Nonetheless, Angie Dickinson manages to overcome most of the obstacles thrown her way by writer/director Samuel Fuller (whose once really enormous cult following, seems to have diminished somewhat in recent years).

gordonl56 China Gate 1957I caught Sam Fuller's 1957 war film CHINA GATE for the first time in a good 20 plus years. The DVD is finally available with its full black-and-white CinemaScope image intact. The old pan and scan VHS was terrible. While not the first Hollywood film to deal with the war in what was then French Indochina, this one comes across as a precursor to the American involvement in Vietnam.The leads are played here by Gene Barry and Angie Dickinson, with support by, Nat King Cole, Lee Van Cleef, Gerald Milton, James Hong, Paul Dubov and Marcel Dalio. The film is set in 1954 and the French are on the losing end of a string of battles with the Viet Minh. Gene Barry is an American Korean War vet who has returned to Vietnam to continue his fight against the Reds. As with most leads in a Fuller film, Barry is a typically conflicted hero. He volunteers to go on a mission for the French Foreign Legion to destroy Soviet-supplied ammunition dumps near the border with Red China. The expedition is to be guided in country by a Eurasian bar girl known far and wide as Lucky Legs (Angie Dickinson). Dickinson just happens to Barry's estranged wife as well the mother of his young son. The kicker here is that Barry could not handle that the boy looked Chinese, so Barry left to fight in Korea. Barry is still fighting because he hates the Reds, while Dickinson is going because the French government promised to help her get her son to America. The group slowly works its way north through the thick jungle past various Viet Minh outposts. Dickinson is known to most of the Red officers from her days running a popular bar. She has also brought along a generous supply of booze to ply the guards with. The group has a few close calls along the way losing some of their explosives and a few men. The group finally reaches the area where the Reds have stockpiled enormous amounts of arms and ammo. They are all stored in a large complex of caves. Of course Miss Dickinson happens to know the Red officer in charge, Lee Van Cleef. Cleef is more than happy to show Dickinson around after a few belts from one of Dickinson's bottles. During the journey, Barry has finally realized what a turd he was for leaving his wife and son while he went off to fight. He promises to make sure the boy makes it to the States. While Dickinson distracts several of the guards at the entrance of the cave complex, Barry and his men wire up the arms etc with explosives. Everything is wired and ready to go when the Reds discover the explosives. They cut the wire hooked to the detonator. Dickinson rushes back inside the cave and hooks up the wires again, blowing herself, the caves, and most of the Reds to kingdom come. Sam Fuller wrote and directed this film. His other work, include the excellent Korean War films, THE STEEL HELMET and FIXED BAYONETS. He also dabbled in film noir with, PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET, HOUSE OF BAMBOO and THE CRIMSOM KIMONO. His most well-known works are probably, THE BIG RED ONE and MERRILL'S MARUDERS. The film, though mostly studio bound, is quite sharp looking with plenty of nice blacks and greys. The man handling the cinematography is two time Oscar nominated, and one time winner, Joseph Biroc. Biroc worked between 1943 and 1987. He is well known to film noir fans for his work on, THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK, LOAN SHARK, WITHOUT WARNING, VICE SQUAD, THE GLASS WALL, DOWN THREE DARK STREETS, BENGAZI, THE GARMENT JUNGLE and CRY DANGER. His most well know film is IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

rcj5365 Sam Fuller's worst war film is worth watching-or at least scanning-for several reasons. The most obvious is the bizarre casting. Then there is the unpersuasive attempt to recreate Vietnam on a studio backlot,which would be duplicated with not much more success years later by Stanley Kubrick in Full Metal Jacket(1987). Finally,both the screw loose plotting and the rabid Red-baiting have become unintentionally comic with the passage of time. This was in fact Sam Fuller's first-ever film for a major Hollywood studio(Twentieth Century-Fox)and his first to be presented in full widescreen Cinemascope.A voice-over introduction sets a hyperbolic tone: "With the end of the Korean War,France was left alone to hold the hottest front in the world and became the barrier between Communism and the rape of Asia." Moments later,we learn that because the dirty Reds have put the Vietnamese town of Sun Toy under siege,a little boy's(Warren Hsieh)pet puppy is about to be eaten! Presumably because 1957,American audiences did not know much about the country or the war,Fuller spends most of the first act spinning out a fanciful interpretation of the situation,blaming many of the country's problems on the Chinese Communists and their massive underground ammunition bunker at China Gate. The French Legionaires decide it to blow it up,and call in explosives expert Sgt. Brock(Gene Barry). The only person who can lead them from Sun Toy to China Gate is Lucky Legs(Angie Dickinson in one of her first major roles),who is allegedly half-Chinese. She's also Brock's ex,and if that weren't enough,the kid with the puppy is their son! That's doubly hard to believe because the stars generate all the sexual chemistry of two wet paper towels. Not to mention in 1957,white actors or actresses were playing roles of minorities,whether Latino or Asian or Arabian were stereotypical then.After that's been established,the already pokey action stops cold for Goldie(Nat "King" Cole) to not only demonstrate his acting abilities but also sings the theme song. Then off they go,with a half dozen or so more Legionaires and a couple of boxes of highly explosive detonators. At every opportunity.one or more of these guys bears his tortured soul,and as they get closer to the Chicorns,it becomes apparent that our girl Lucky has been a sort of one-woman welcoming committee whose mission is to boost morale in every way that she can. All the guys know her because she makes regular visits to the Chinese to deliver cognac and sex,even though her main squeeze is the commander of China Gate,Maj. Cham(Lee Van Cleef),yet another half-Chinese who is in line for a promotion to Moscow.With only a few exceptions,the combat scenes are as phony as the rest. They were filmed on cheap-looking sets with little originality or energy. Nothing on screen comes as close to Fuller's better work in "The Steel Helmet",and "The Big Red One". Still,"China Gate" is instructive. It's a perfect example of Hollywood's attempt to turn every post-war conflict into another World War II. When the film does try to draw any distinctions,it still reduces the action to good guys versus bad guys. If a few Americans will just go over there and blow up stuff and shoot some guys,those benighted foreigners will see the error of their ways and everything will straighten itself out. That's a bit of oversimplification,but given the loopy politics of China Gate,it's not too far off the mark. It misses it.

jonathan-577 On this evidence, Fuller is a strident and uncompromising anti-Communist anti-racist. You heard me. This is a late-50s movie about 'Indochina' - a little ahead of the curve there! - which takes the USA to task for not leaping right in there with their French pals; the enemy has Stalin all over the wall of their lookout posts. So it's more than a little silly, to put it nicely. But given this, the racial issues it confronts are above and beyond the call of duty - the espionage tour our heroes embark on is really an opportunity for dynamite expert Gene Barry to smarten up after abandoning his distinctly Asian-featured kid from his liaison with half-white Lucky Legs (Angie Dickinson). Along the way there are exciting scenes, surprisingly well-modulated performances, and a budget-conscious stylistic trick I've never seen before: shot almost entirely in wide master shot, Fuller constantly pans-and-scans the black-and-white Scope image to approximate camera movement. Here's a guy who's smart enough to know that grainy (not to mention silly) won't matter if the damn thing MOVES.