China Gate
With Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson, Nat King Cole.
US, 1957, 35mm, black & white, 97 min.
Print source: Museum of Modern Art
A fascinating crystallization of Fuller's major themes of war, flawed heroes, indomitable women and ugly Americans, China Gate is a bold CinemaScope epic that is possibly the first American film about the Vietnam War, set as it is in the final year of the conflict's French phase. Fuller furiously packs in the action and sharp topicality—racism, Communism, imperialism—in his story of Lucky Legs, an Eurasian smuggler and bargirl (brashly played by Angie Dickinson) stranded in Vietnam and determined to find a better life in the US for her illegitimate child. She agrees to guide a secret mission into Communist territory not knowing that joining them is her child's racist father, an ex-American-GI-turned-mercenary-solider. In stark contrast to the embittered and confused masculinity of Gene Barry's soldier is the voice of calm and stoic dignity sounded by explosions expert and sole African American on the team, Nat King Cole, in a rare screen performance. Cole also sings the film's haunting theme, one of the last compositions of Victor Young, who died before finishing the score, which was completed by his friend Max Steiner.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Pickup on South Street
The Crimson Kimono
The Naked Kiss
Underworld U.S.A.
The Baron of Arizona
Merrill's Marauders
House of Bamboo
Fixed Bayonets!
Forty Guns
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
A Fuller Life
Run of the Arrow
Street of No Return
The Steel Helmet
The Big Red One
Shock Corridor
Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made
