Five Gates to Hell | |
---|---|
Directed by | James Clavell |
Written by | James Clavell |
Produced by | James Clavell |
Starring | Dolores Michaels Patricia Owens Neville Brand Ken Scott Nobu McCarthy Benson Fong |
Cinematography | Sam Leavitt |
Edited by | Harry W. Gerstad |
Music by | Paul Dunlap |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $300,000 approx [1] |
Five Gates to Hell is a 1959 American adventure film written and directed by James Clavell in CinemaScope. The film stars Dolores Michaels, Patricia Owens, Neville Brand, Ken Scott, Nobu McCarthy and Benson Fong. It was Clavell's directorial debut.
The film was released on September 23, 1959, by 20th Century-Fox. [2] [3] [4]
Several nurses including Athena Roberts, Joy Brooks and a Catholic nun, Sister Marie, and a surgeon, Dr. Richter, are taken captive in Indochina by a band of marauders led by Chen Pamok. He leads them to a jungle fortress guarded by five gates and heavily armed men and demands Dr. Richter treat the gravely ill Gung Sa, a warlord.
Chen becomes infatuated with Athena and, after she resists, she is raped. Richter diagnoses a malignant brain tumor and is told that, if his surgery does not save Gung Sa, he and the other prisoners will be put to death. When the patient survives, Richter is told the women will be kept as sex slaves but, as a reward, the doctor may choose one woman as his own. Although he is in love with Athena, he chooses Sister Marie, to spare her virtue.
Athena uses her wiles to lead a revolt, mowing down guerrillas with machine guns and leading an escape into the wild, Richter sacrificing his own life to help save theirs. Chen's men pursue and many from both sides are killed. Sister Marie, appreciating how protective the others have been of her, ultimately picks up a weapon to fight back. Athena is able to shoot Chen, who dies pledging his love for her.
The film was made by the production company of Robert L. Lippert who produced low budget films for distribution by 20th Century-Fox. Lippert wanted to make a modern-day war film set in Asia. Clavell had just written the very successful The Fly (1958) for Lippert was hired to write the script. Lippert was struggling to find a director and Harry Spalding, who was Lippert's story editor, suggested Clavell. Lippert had enjoyed success with first time directors before, such as Sam Fuller, and agreed. Spalding said Clavell's first draft "was practically perfect". [5]
Irish McCalla was originally announced for the female lead. [6] The role went to Gerri Gaylor. [7]
Robert L. Lippert described the film as a "sleeper". [1]
James Clavell was an Australian-born, British-raised and educated, naturalized-American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for The Fly (1958), based on the short story by George Langelaan, and The Great Escape (1963), based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill. He directed the popular 1967 film To Sir, with Love, for which he also wrote the script.
Lawrence Neville Brand was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous or antagonistic character roles in Westerns, crime dramas, and films noir, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954).
The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction horror film and the first installment in The Fly film series. The film was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and stars David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall. The screenplay by James Clavell is based on the 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan.
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Noble House is a novel by James Clavell, published in 1981 and set in Hong Kong in 1963. It is the fourth book published in Clavell's Asian Saga and is chronologically the fifth book in the series. The "Noble House" in the title is the nickname of Struan's, the trading company first introduced in Clavell's Tai-Pan.
Benson Fong was an American character actor.
Nellie Elizabeth "Irish" McCalla was an American film and television actress and artist best known as the title star of the 1950s television series Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. She co-starred with actor Chris Drake. McCalla was also a "Vargas Girl" model for pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas.
The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film based on the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The film was produced by Robert L. Lippert and directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, and stars Vincent Price and Franca Bettoia. The screenplay was written in part by Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and chose to be credited as "Logan Swanson". William Leicester, Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo Ragona finished the script.
Lawrence Wheaton Gates was an American actor.
Robert Lenard Lippert was an American film producer and cinema chain owner. He was president and chief operating officer of Lippert Theatres, Affiliated Theatres and Transcontinental Theatres, all based in San Francisco, and at his height, he owned a chain of 139 movie theaters.
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Sigrid Sophia Agatha de Torres von Giese, known professionally as Paraluman, was a Filipino actress whose career spanned four decades. Dubbed as the Greta Garbo of the Philippines, she is often cited as one of the greatest screen figures in the country. She first appeared in the film Flores de Mayo (1940) and rose to fame in the self-titled film opposite Fernando Poe Sr. She has since appeared in over 90 motion pictures including several foreign films such as Elephant Girl (1951) and Surrender - Hell! (1959). She has received two FAMAS Awards and has been inducted at the Eastwood City Walk of Fame.
Dolores Rae Michaels was an American actress.
A Woman of Affairs is a 1928 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer synchronized sound drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Lewis Stone. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The film was based on a 1924 best-selling novel by Michael Arlen, The Green Hat, which he adapted as a four-act stage play in 1925. The Green Hat was considered so daring in the United States that the movie did not allow any associations with it and was renamed A Woman of Affairs, with the characters also renamed to mollify the censors. In particular, the film script eliminated all references to heroin use, homosexuality and syphilis that were at the core of the tragedies involved.
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Space Master X-7 is a 1958 American horror science fiction film in Regalscope from Regal Films, produced by Bernard Glasser, directed by Edward Bernds, that stars Bill Williams, Lyn Thomas, and Robert Ellis. Paul Frees, Judd Holdren, and Moe Howard have supporting roles. The screenplay was written by George Worthing Yates and Daniel Mainwaring.
Rooster is a 1982 made-for-television film starring Paul Williams and Pat McCormick who were reunited after their pairing in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Rooster is an unsold television pilot written and produced by Glen A. Larson for 20th Century Fox Television and broadcast as a two-hour movie on ABC on August 19, 1982 and was rebroadcast on July 24, 1983.
Jungle Goddess is a 1948 American action/adventure crime film starring George Reeves, Ralph Byrd, and Wanda McKay. Directed by Lewis D. Collins, the film was based on an idea by producer William Stephens.
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The film series of The Fly is a sequence of science fiction-horror films, consisting of an original series started in 1958 and a remake series made in the 1980s. The first film of the series, The Fly, was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1958 as a colour film. The two following black and white sequels, Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly, both produced by Associated Producers, were released in 1959 and 1965 respectively. The original film was remade in 1986, The Fly directed by David Cronenberg. The remake film received the Academy Award for Best Makeup in 1987. Its sequel, The Fly II, was released in 1989. All five films within the series were distributed by 20th Century Fox.