China Gate (1957 film)

China Gate
China Gate
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Samuel Fuller
Written by	Samuel Fuller
Produced by	Samuel Fuller
Starring	Gene Barry; Angie Dickinson
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc; Cinemascope
Edited by	Gene Fowler Jr.
Music by	Victor Young; Max Steiner
Color process	Black and white
Production; company	Globe Enterprises
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	May 22, 1957 (New York City);
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150,000

China Gate is a 1957 American CinemaScope war film written, produced and directed by Samuel Fuller and released through 20th Century Fox. The film is set during the First Indochina War (1946–1954), and depicts the relationship between a sergeant of the French Foreign Legion and the Eurasian wife whom he had abandoned.

Plot

Sergeant Brock and Goldie are American Korean War veterans now serving as French Foreign Legion mercenaries in the First Indochina War. Brock's wife is a "half caste" Chinese-European named "Lucky Legs" who resorts to smuggling to feed her five-year-old son she had with Brock. Brock abandoned her and the baby when he 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 expertise of the area and her connection to the communist Major Cham to get a demolition squad of Legionnaires led by Brock to a vital 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 five-year-old son's emigration to America.

The raid is filled with animosity between the former lovers, booby traps, and enemy patrols. On arrival at the ammunition dump hidden in a mountain, Lucky discovers the commanding officer is her former friend, Major Cham, who wants to take her and her son to a new life in Moscow. Cham is a high flyer corporate executive (in the manner of Fuller's gangsters in Underworld U.S.A.) marked for great things in the world of international communism. The sabotage mission is successful but at great cost, as 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 Goldie reprises the title song.

Cast

Gene Barry as Sgt. Brock
Angie Dickinson as Lucky Legs
Nat King Cole as Goldie
Paul Dubov as Capt. Caumont
Lee Van Cleef as Maj. Cham
George Givot as Cpl. Pigalle
Gerald Milton as Pvt. Andreades
Neyle Morrow as Leung
Marcel Dalio as Father Paul
Maurice Marsac as Col. De Sars
Warren Hsieh as The Boy
Paul Busch as Cpl. Kruger
Sasha Harden as Pvt. Jaszi
James Hong as Charlie
Willie Soo Hoo as Moi Leader (as William Soo Hoo)
Walter Soo Hoo as Guard
Weaver Levy as Khuan

Production

Fuller selected singer Cole after being impressed with his face on a record album cover. Though Darryl F. Zanuck said Cole received more money in a few weeks than 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.

An actual Eurasian actress playing a love interest opposite a white European star was a rarity in Hollywood at the time. Dickinson proves attractive to Brock, and to mainstream audiences of the time. Her character is allowed to express Fuller's view on race relations and is respected both by the French military and by a local priest whose life she had saved. (The character takes a role similar to Fuller's protagonists in Pickup on South Street and The Naked Kiss). The dangerous patrol allows for a gradual change of heart for Brock.

Soundtrack

China Gate was the last score 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 followed by Brock's little son, making it a memorable tune and a fitting tribute to Young.

China Gate was released as a cover version in 2001 by Chris Whitley.

Bans

Before China Gate was to be released, Fuller received a call from Romain Gary, the French Consul-General in Los Angeles, inviting him to lunch. Gary said the film's prologue was too harsh towards France and asked Fuller to change it. Fuller refused, 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.^[2]

The film was also banned in Israel for "excessive cruelty" towards Russian and Chinese soldiers.^[3]

Home media

China Gate was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Mongrel Media on March 26, 2013.

References

^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p251
^ Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face, Alfred A Knopf, 2002.
^ Israel Bans Film Depicting Reds as 'Monsters'. The Modesto Bee. 2 October 1957.

Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face, Alfred A Knopf, 2002.

External links

China Gate at IMDb
China Gate at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
China Gate at the TCM Movie Database

[1] Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p251

[2] Fuller, Samuel. A Third Face, Alfred A Knopf, 2002.

[3] Israel Bans Film Depicting Reds as 'Monsters'. The Modesto Bee. 2 October 1957.

[1]

[2]

[3]