bkoganbing
A rather trashy early account of the Vietnam War when it was the French still
fighting it is Five Gates To Hell. It's as if someone got all those yellow peril warnings out to create this film.If you believe this the Vietminh were really interested in our women folk for sex.
Well proportioned females weren't all that prevalent among their own women.Neville Brand plays a Vietminh guerrilla leader who kidnaps a hospital staff to
treat a local Vietminh leader, doctors and nurses. The patient dies and the
hospital staff effects an escape, the doctors die but the women wind up defending French colonialism and the virtue of white womanhood with the
exception of nurse Nobu McCarthy.A number of reviewers have already commented on Nancy Kulp, better known
as Ms. Jane Hathaway of the Beverly Hillbillies lobbing handgrenades like she
Nolan Ryan on the pitcher's mound.As if this oriental depravity isn't enough these people are even raping nuns among the nurses.Pure unadulterated trash.
dubyah1
I was against film censorship and film ratings less than zero until I saw the aptly named Five Gates of Hell.As a previous critic noted, 'A shabby little shocker'. When asked to name a movie I wanted to 'unwatch', this is at the top of my list. Oh, and just when you thought the sociopathic film couldn't be worse, there's Nancy Kulp(Miss Jane Hathaway from the Bev Hillbillies) with a hand grenade, and Neville Brand in oriental blackface. If you're interested in the fates of women in World War II and Asian prisoner-of-war camps, I suggest you watch the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) miniseries 'Tenko'.
Skragg
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.
Gar-8
I believe Clavell was a great historical novelist, and when he tried out the silver screen, with all its limitations, he maintained his integrity. The sheer quality of this flick shines through. It's set in Vietnam in 1950, and, as usual, if it's Eastern society, he can teach it.
AD
