China Gate
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 (Gene Barry) and Goldie (Nat King Cole) 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" (Angie Dickinson) 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 (Lee Van Cleef) 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.
More details
author | Samuel Fuller |
---|---|
contentLocation | Vietnam |
director | Samuel Fuller |
editor | Gene Fowler Jr. |
keywords | abandon baby booby trap commanding officer communism first indochina war foreign legion former lovers french foreign legion indochina war korean war korean war veteran miscegenation moscow new life people\'s republic of china red china smuggle underworld usa viet minh walk war veterans |
musicBy | Victor Young |
producer | Samuel Fuller |
productionCompany | Globe Enterprises |
publisher | 20th Century Fox |
theme | race and ethnicity war |