Back Door to Hell (1964)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Monte Hellman

Writers:

Richard A. Guttman (screenplay) and
John Hackett (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

January 1965 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

It took courage to get to Luzon - and blood and guts to move every mile beyond!

Plot:

During WWII, a three-man commando team places its trust in the hands of a band of Filipino resistors, as they try to knock out a Japenese communication center.

Plot Keywords:

Radio | WWII | Soldier | Intelligence | Guerilla

Cast

Jimmie Rodgers	...	Lt. Craig
Jack Nicholson	...	Burnett
John Hackett	...	Jersey
Annabelle Huggins	...	Maria
Conrad Maga	...	Paco
Johnny Monteiro	...	Ramundo
Joe Sison	...	Japanese Capt.
Henry Duval	...	Garde
Ben Perez
Vic Uematsu

Runtime:

75 min | 69 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-13 | USA:Approved (certificate #20829)

Filming Locations:

Bicol, Luzon, Philippines

Company:

Lippert Pictures

Quotes:

Jersey: Yeah, we're all gonna die anyway - tomorrow, next week, 30 years from now. Did that little thought ever penetrate your thick skull?
Burnett: Yeah, once when I was a boy, but naturally I dismissed it as being too outrageous.

smart low-budget WW2 film

Three US soldiers come ashore on a Philippine island to do intelligence work in preparation for the big US invasion to retake the islands from the Japanese. Led by Jimmie Rogers as sensitive Lieutenant Craig with pacifist leanings, with Jack Nicholson playing a communications expert with a lot of philosophical observations, and John Hackett as Jersey the tough realist among them, they meet up with the local resistance led by Paco (Conrad Maga), who have been fighting the Japanese for the last few years and have grown cynical about the Americans ever coming back. This film is a direct contrast to the John Wayne movie Back To Bataan in which the Americans were seemingly idolized as they were led by the Duke himself. Maga tells Rogers that he (Maga) is in charge if they are to work together. Rogers, Nicholson, and Hackett have to find out where the Japanese defenses are as the invasion is about to happen, and the film hikes us through the jungles and highlands in pretty sharp black and white, with some authentic flourishes about interrogation of captured Japanese soldiers and another ragtag guerrilla band that is looking to make a profit out of the war. The details are what make this well worth checking out, as the film dodges any of the obvious heroics it could have exploited. Get through the opening credits and you see that it was directed by Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop) and he delivers a war film with enough action as well as some semblance of authenticity giving us a multi-faceted story.