China Gate (1957)

During the Indochina (in what is now Vietnam) war in 1954, a Eurasian woman (Angie Dickinson) uses whatever means necessary to support herself and her five year old son (Warren Hsieh). She and the boy were abandoned by her American husband (Gene Barry) because, unlike his mother, he looked too Chinese. But when she agrees to guide a demolition team of international mercenaries into China to blow up a munitions dump, she comes face to face with the husband who abandoned her who is part of the team. This often forced piece of anti-communist propaganda was written and directed by Samuel Fuller. But the red paranoia takes a backseat to the anti-racism theme provided by Barry's ugly American. As a movie, it's quite entertaining and uncomplicated but nowhere near Fuller's best work. Dickinson is attractive in an early leading role but Barry is a dud as a leading man. There's a reason he became a star in TV (BAT MASTERSON, BURKE'S LAW) but never in the movies. The lovely score is by Victor Young who died before he could complete it and his credit reads, "Music by Victor Young - extended by his old friend Max steiner". With Nat King Cole in a rare acting role, Lee Van Cleef (also playing Eurasian), Marcel Dalio, James Hong and Paul Dubov.