Five Gates to Hell

FGTH is shown on the Fox Movie Channel quite often. It's a riveting movie set in 1950 Vietnam that will keep your interest until the very end. Written and directed by James Clavell, it's the story of eight Red Cross nurses and two doctors who are captured by Vietnamese bandits and taken to the jungle castle of warlord Chin Pmok. There, they must treat and keep alive the gravely ill grandfather of the warlord leader. Eventually, they make a break for freedom and must learn to use hand grenades and M-3 "grease guns" in order to stay alive.

The acting is first rate. Neville Brand was an odd choice to play Chin Pmok, but he pulls it off well and is quite believable. He makes Chin Pmok a brutal killer, but also a man who has a sense of honor and a softer side.

Dolores Michaels strikes the right note as Athena Roberts. Athena tries to repress her love for Dr. Richter, and in doing so, often appears emotionless, but she can turn on the fire when necessary.

Patricia Owens was perfectly cast as the hard-edged but pragmatic Joy Brooks. The press book for FGTH mentions the scenes where the women are selected by individual soldiers for sex. Patricia told Director Clavell that she was going to give the soldier who selected her "the look." In that closeup scene of Patricia, she definitely gives him "the look" and shows that she knew how to seduce a man just by using her eyes. That scene alone makes the FGTH worth watching. An excellent piece of acting by Patricia Owens.

Nancy Kulp was born to play Susette, the head of the nurses. Irish McCalla was originally cast as Greta, but wound up with the much smaller role of Sister Magdalena. Gerry Gaylor as Greta was very good. Shirley Knight, Nobu McCarthy, Linda Wong, and Greta Chi (in her first ever role before the camera) are all quite convincing. Ken Scott and John Morley provide good support as the two doctors who are sworn to save lives, but now find they must take them in order to stay alive.

Try to catch FGTH on The Fox Movie Channel if you haven't seen it yet. It's also available on DVD and can be found on Amazon and eBay. It's a good film to have in your collection.

I first saw it very early (about 1970), and didn't see it again (as far as I know) until just a few years ago, but somehow the general idea of it always stayed with me. There have been many movies, I think, about women guerrilla fighters, but as far as I know, they usually do it for patriotic reasons. These women were doing it partly to stay alive and partly to get even, which gave it a different "feel", along with the fact that they were NURSES turned guerrilla fighters. Because of this, in the back of my mind, I always think of it as an exploitation film (the kind about "girl gangs" and so on). Which are fine with me, but it isn't one. It also isn't a "yellow peril" story, or really any kind of propaganda film (for France or any other country being in Vietnam). And where else can you see Nancy Kulp (Miss Hathaway) holding a hand grenade? (Unless maybe in some broad comedy routine.) And in how many other films (until a few years later) would you see a nun firing a machine gun? (Even though she did it very briefly.) And I know that people either laugh or get mad when they see an Asian (or in this case Eurasian) character played by a Western actor, but Neville Brand was very good in the part (again, he wasn't a "yellow peril" villain and nothing else). It isn't a perfect movie, but I think it mainly works.

With that title, it sounds like a vincent price camp horror film, but it's actually an adventure film, with some history thrown in. At a red cross medical unit in vietnam, 1950, a doctor ( Ken Scott) and several nurses (led by Nancy Kulp, from Beverly Hillbillies !) are taken hostage by the locals. Neville Brand is Chen, who has them operate on the local war lord. the soldiers are barbaric, and the nurses start getting attacked. and because some of the nurses are nuns, there's discussion over how much of a fight they should put up when it happens. the group must escape. somehow. the second half is their escape. written and directed by Jim Clavell, who actually WAS a prisoner of war during WW II. wrote a lot of material on experiences in asia. he passed away in 1994, but they are still remaking his story Shogun! Five Gates is very well done! he squashes a lot of story into 98 minutes.

Nancy Kulp is comedic genius in this role. Otherwise just a story of attractive women in danger. This film is not to be taken serious but for camp value.

Vietnam, 1950. A band of Vietnamese guerillas invade a French hospital camp and carry off the nurses and doctors to perform an operation on some old geezer who is gonna croak anyway. The nurses are subjected to various atrocities (the worst of which is being cast in this film) before the inevitable breakout. This is about as close to an exploitation film as you can get from a major studio (20th Century Fox) considering the time period. The movie was shot in Cinemascope, although the print I saw was cropped.

Neville Brand, as the guerilla leader, looks as Asian as Mantan Moreland. His slicked-down hair doesn't help, either. He speaks in broken English. He yells out commands in what I assume is supposed to be Vietnamese, although I suspect he was really saying "get my freaking agent!" Dolores Michaels plays a nurse that Brand has the hots for. Nancy Kulp plays an ugly nurse that no one has the hots for. Ken Scott plays a doctor. Shirley Knight plays a nun. Benson Fong plays an Asian. Audience plays with their cell phones.

The climax isn't half bad, nor is it half good. I am no military strategist, but I'm pretty sure if the enemy is firing at you, you don't stand out in the open. Also, there is another lesson to be learned here. Never let Nancy Kulp anywhere near a hand grenade.