China Gate

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.

I wanted to like this film, but it was only fair, if not below average. Angie Dickenson couldn't act at this point and overplayed her role. Gene Barry wasn't much better. Lee Van Cleef as a Chinese Colonel! Beyond bizarre. The saving grace was Nat King Cole. A decent performance and a great ending song by Nat gives this film a five. Good to view at 3am when you can't sleep.

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.

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.

This is about the most boring war film I've ever seen. Samuel Fuller was really bad; how he got a reputation for being a good filmmaker is beyond me. Ed Wood was better than this. This is the worst role Angie Dickinson ever had, and my mother is tougher than the Gene Barry character. Nat King Cole was believable. The story is ridiculous, just like the French who spent their money and lives trying to keep their colonial possession. I was rooting for everyone to get killed except Cole. Only the first five minutes of the film (background propaganda on Vietnam) was historically interesting (despite being distorted). Strictly for Americans who thought we belonged in Vietnam. However, it did put me to sleep on the couch for a nice nap.

I remember watching on TV as a teenager, little did I know that a few years later some of the scenes and some of the dangers pictured, one especially, when Goldie (Nate King Cole) stepped on a punji stick, that one day it would it be a real worry. To this day, I will not watch any Nam war movies, even though China Gate was about the Indochina War with the French I would never watch again, as I said a few scenes would be too much and bring back memories. The reason I posted this was I just watched a short about Nat King Cole and it reminded me of that movie he was in. I had to read what others had posted about China Gate to see if others felt the same way. USMC, Nam, 68-69.

Angie Dickinson is reputed to have said "I was often a lead actress, but never the lead." Even an idiot will see her to be the lead actor and character in China Gate. She has a better role than Gene Barry by a mile. I can't claim to have seen a lot of Samuel Fuller directed films--but this is the best I have seen of his to date. The shots with the child at the beginning and the end are very well made. The film may not easily be recognized as a family film but it is essentially one. Is it the only role where Dickinson is on screen as a brunette? Probably so. The power of Fuller's writing is evident is these lines "Everbody doesn't carry their lives in the face" and "You are tough enough to handle explosives but not handle life." This is the best rounded performance of two actors--Lee Van Cleef and singer Nat "King" Cole, who actually sings the title song.