Back Door to Hell
| Back Door to Hell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Monte Hellman |
| Screenplay by | John Hackett Richard A. Guttman |
| Produced by | Fred Roos |
| Starring | Jimmie Rodgers John Hackett Jack Nicholson |
| Cinematography | Mars Rasca |
| Edited by | Fely Crisostomo |
| Music by | Mike Velarde |
Production companies | Lippert Pictures Medallion Films |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 75 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Back Door to Hell is a 1964 film concerning a three-man team of United States soldiers preparing the way for Gen. MacArthur's World War II return to the Philippines by destroying a Japanese communications center. It was produced on a relatively small budget and received lukewarm reviews, and is most notable as one of Jack Nicholson's earlier roles. Hellman, Nicholson and Hackett also made the film back to back with Flight to Fury (1964).
Plot
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Cast
- Jimmie Rodgers as Lt. Craig
- Jack Nicholson as Burnett
- John Hackett as Jersey
- Annabelle Huggins as Maria
- Conrad Maga as Paco
- Johnny Monteiro as Ramundo
- Joe Sison as Japanese Capt.
- Henry Duval as Garde
- Ben Perez
- Vic Uematsu
Production
Robert Lippert had been impressed by Jack Nicholson's Thunder Island so gave Nicholson and his friends Monty Hellman and John Hackett $160,000 and $400 a week salary to make two films on location in the Philippines. The three men and Hellman's wife and child travelled 28 days by ship via Hawaii, Hong Kong and Japan with the three working on the screenplays to both films on the voyage. Back Door to Hell was a rewrite on one of Lippert's existing screenplays.[1] Popular singer Jimmie Rodgers had a substantial part in the film, and co-financed it.
The film, directed by Monte Hellman, was shot on location in the Philippines, giving it a particularly authentic look. The same plot was reused in Ib Melchior's Ambush Bay (1966) with a larger Marine patrol destroying a minefield prior to the American and Filipino invasion of the Philippines.
Notes
- ^ p.55 McDougal, Dennis Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times John Wiley and Sons, 2008
External links
- Back Door to Hell at IMDb
- Back Door to Hell at the TCM Movie Database
- Back Door to Hell at AllMovie
- Back Door To Hell at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- original film trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhwQG--b_Uk&feature=related
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