America was Sam Fuller's subject, and the more controversial the topic, the better. China Gate, apart from being entertaining, widescreen action in the Fuller mode, is also a fascinating entry into the Vietnam-era films from as far back as 1957. The plot revolves openly around that confusion of racism and attraction that has always marked American attitudes toward Indochina. The setting reflects the impression, rampant in this country, of Vietnam as a battleground of Biblical purport and proportions where God-fearing peasants meet the giant heathen, Communism. A young Angie Dickinson stars as the Eurasian beauty Lia "Lucky Legs," a prostitute in French Indochina whose despised ex-husband, the American mercenary Brock (Gene Barry), refuses to acknowledge their completely Asian-looking son. On the promise of sending her kid to America, she agrees to aid Brock and a group of French Legionnaires on a mission to sabotage a Communist ammunition dump at the Chinese border.