Synopsis
In 1944, with several days ahead of an all-out attack against the Japanese, three US soldiers sneak ashore on Luzon, Philippines, and gather intelligence about Japanese troops with the help of the regional guerrillas. However, their identity has already been exposed to the Japanese and their mission comes to a deadlock because of their broken shortwave radio. Black Door to Hell was a turning point for Monte Hellman, who was building up his career around Roger Corman after his debut film Beast from Haunted Cave . He had to shoot the film in the Philippines to reduce production cost. However, even though it was a low-budget movie made for a double feature, the director came up with his own style by inversely using the situation where he had to shoot it in the Philippines. This movie hints at the direction and theme that his follow-up films pursued by dealing with ontological questions raised by people who are faced with tragedy, male characters who have no concrete directions of their lives and female characters who appear as a mirror. From a more comprehensive perspective, this movie can be interpreted as a metaphor for the situation at that time where the US started to deeply intervene in the Vietnam War. It seems that the nationalistic and independent character of the guerrilla leader who lost his family because of an attack by the US reflects the Vietnamese sentiments toward the United States. It was Jimmy Rogers who stepped up as a hero to promote the movie, but it is Jack Nicholson who is the most remembered from this movie. While trying to build up his career as an actor in the director's theatrical troupe, he formed ties with Hellman and played an important role in his early works by participating in various tasks such as scenarios and production. This is one of the forgotten facts along with Hellman's movies. (LEE Yong Cheol)