I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

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.

Very unusual for me to watch a war movie, but anything directed by Sam Fuller deserves consideration and I was intrigued with the casting that included, Angie Dickinson, Nat King Cole and Lee Van Clef. As it tuned out this was not as bad as it might have been, helped very much by the performances, Fuller achieves from his cast. Set in Vietnam, then Indochina, it features the last days of the French rule, when the Americans were seemingly the good guys dropping food parcels to the indigenous population. Nat King Cole, sings the title track twice and puts in a really convincing performance as one of the French rag bag group who trek through the jungle to carry out their wondrous mission. Mostly filmed on back lots, Fuller has interspersed stock footage to give a reasonable approximation of the location. Angie Dickinson is a real trouper and plays this very wide with much non PC banter with the Chinese, who she seems to keep happy with promise of brandy and sex. Lee Van Clef is a real surprise here (I thought he had always had that weathered look!) and helps to make the last quarter a bit more fun.

The action is set in Viet Nam. The French had been waging an impossible war against the communist Chinese and Vietnamese in a conflict that ended in defeat for France. This is before the American involvement in one of the most hated wars in recent history. Samuel Fuller, who started out as a reporter, saw firsthand what war was really like early in his life during WWII. After that, he became a writer for the movies and a director who, to this day, has inspired many of the current crop of creators with his sharp take on the world he lived. "China Gate", alas, does not add anything to his illustrious career, although no serious fan of Mr. Fuller will pass the opportunity to take a look at this 1957 film. The story centers around a conflict between a Eurasian born woman, Lucky Legs, the owner of a saloon that had married Johnny Brock, an American mercenary who is helping the French in their fight against their enemy as the story begins. Brock was a bigot, to put it mildly, and a man that obviously was not playing with a full deck. He abandoned Lucky after their son is born. He rejected the infant based on his Chinese looks. Lucky is recruited to guide a small team of men to the China Gate, where the communists have amassed war material that will help them fight the war. Lucky, being well known to her countrymen, had no trouble taking the patrol to their destination, leaving at each post bottles of her prized stash of French cognac, much appreciated by the fighting enemy.Unfortunately, the story does not ring true; it is sadly dated as it does not make much sense. The mere idea of outsmarting the guerrillas, by a small group of men just does not seem possible, but then again, this is the basis of many pictures where common sense does not count into the story, what matters is the action, the dead, the fabulous explosions and the heroism of a few.Gene Barry playing Brock shows no chemistry whatsoever with his co-star, Angie Dickinson, at the height of her youth and beauty. Nat King Cole, the inimitable singer makes a dramatic appearance and he steals the movie from more experienced actors. Lee Van Cleef shows up as Cham, the man who was also in love with Lucky. For Samuel Fuller fans only!

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.