Five Gates to Hell

I haven't seen this film since the early seventies, and I can remember it being a shocker to my teenage sensibilities. ( I think I had just been allowed to wear white lipstick, shades of Yardley!) But it held my attention, and I can remember seeing Nancy Culp (Yikes, Miss Jane, what are you doing with a grenade?) in a role 180 degrees from the office of the Commerce Bank and Mr. Drysdale. I remember the role of the nun being virtuous, but stoic in the face of war, and that Neville Brand was riveting as the main character.

I wish this were available on DVD. The writing and the story were gripping, and Clavell never disappoints...

The five gates to hell are five fortresses in Vietnam, built by the French to safeguard their colony, which in the insurrection war against the French were taken over by Vietnamese war lords. The strongest of them is the main scene of this drama, where eight nurses and two doctors are held prisoners with the intention to have a dying old war lord cured of his cancer, which of course the doctors fail to do, which they realise and the necessity of their escape before it is too late. The escape is not entirely successful, as there are casualties among them, but the ladies manage to get out and then have to face running the gauntlet to get into safety some 30 miles away. Their struggle and ordeals is the main drama of the film, which reminds quite a lot of "A Town Like Alice" a few years earlier, for the trials of the women. James Clavell, who wrote and made the film, always knew what he was describing, as he himself had been a war prisoner with the Japanese. His films like his novels are replenished with action and very dramatic developments, and they are all readable and impressive also as films. This is one of the best, and he would go on making more films for ten more years, until he concentrated wholly on only novels. The most impressive acting here is actually the villain, Neville Brand, a very brutal war hero but with human feelings, and the development of his character and his downfall is the most interesting part of the film, although it is not quite credible. Why do villains in films always have to be shot and killed over and over again? Can't they never do it right the first time?

So what do you have to "get over" to like this movie? The fact that standing sets and one American are used to be Vietnam. Those are small faults in a tightly put together potential exploitation film that instead manages to actually be dramatic and yes it's nasty in a war that's realistic to war in general and Vietnam in particular.

Due to a fast pace and tight dialogue this one won me over very quickly. It's well acted and there are things you won't see coming. The faith elements--both of the nuns and the doctors--are changed and broken realistically.

Unlike other Vietnam films--those made while the war was still being fought--this one presents the war in a way that time has supported, not torn down. There is no flag waving here. Also given good context and excitement to it all is a good musical score by Paul Dunlap.

James Clavell--as he proved with his novel turned movie KING RAT and with his later last film as director, THE LAST VALLEY, doesn't shy away from rape and death and nastiness in war but manages to make it about characters and drama not cheap exploitation. Which isn't to say that fans of just that wouldn't find this enjoyable and maybe even a little bit educational as well.

It's a good movie with limited production values--but makes the most of itself.

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.

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.