Angkor - Das Tor zur Hölle

Robert Walker does a generally convincing job (except for some exaggerated "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO"s), Christopher George hams it up as a sadistic military nut, Woody Strode livens up every scene he's in as his more sensible boot camp trainer, and Nancy Kwan (the reason I wanted to see this film in the first place) receives fourth billing for about three (pointless) minutes of screen time! The film is alternately dull and unpleasant, sometimes both; all the sides (Cambodians, Vietnamese, Americans) are mostly equally repellent, cold-blooded killers, and the ending is a complete downer. Your best bet would probably be to watch the scenes with Woody Strode, who at least brings some gravity to his character, and skip everything else. *1/2 out of 4.

My review was written in July 1986 after watching the movie on Vestron video cassette.

It's reassuring to know that for every world crisis or momentous happening there's an exploitation film in the offing. "Angkor-Cambodia Express" (a/k/a "Kampuchea Express") comes from Dick Randall, the Rome-based Yank producer who brought us "The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansifeld" and more recently "Pieces". Filmed in 1981,k it was released Stateside on video cassette.

Robert Walker toplines as Andy Cameron, a magazine journalist returning to Kampuchea to get his girlfriend out of the country before she's massacred along with a big chunk of the rest of the population.

Walker tries to team up with a gung-ho American (court-martialed during the Vietnam War) calling himself Gen. MacArthur (the late Christopher George), who has a private army in the hills of Thailand. MacArthur gives him a hard time but his right hand man Woody (Woody Strode) agrees to help Walker. Also aided by a local helper Porn Pen (Sorapong Chatri), Walker gets into Kampuchea, defeats arch villain Mitr (Lui Leung Wai), but hi girl Mieng (Nit Alisa) dies on the way out.

Walker and Strode turn in good performances in a rather dull film , rendered remote by the usual subpar dubbing. Massacre footage is kept to a minimum and special effects are okay. Opening reels are needlessly confusing as to the proper time frame in presenting Walker in earlier trips to Kampuchea.

American journalist Andrew Cameron (Robert Walker, Jr.), unable to take his Asian lover when he flees Kampuchea before the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s, returns after three years, determined to remove her from her still embattled nation. Believing that he will find assistance for his idealistic mission, Andrew is disappointed although not deterred in his endeavours to locate a guide who will lead him to the village of his languishing love. Andrew joins a group of partisans led by an American Viet Nam veteran (Christopher George) who doublecrosses him, forcing him to look elsewhere to obtain aid for his planned rescue. Shot in Thailand, the work is not directed very well and utilizes an unseasoned Thai crew, and yet some scenes are potent, thanks to creative camerawork and some focussed acting by the international cast. The storyline is not without interest but unfortunately is somewhat incoherent, flashbacks merging with the present in unclear fashion. Additional difficulty results from erratic sound dubbing, looping and mixing, aggravated by long stretches of Thai and Khmer dialogue, at times dubbed, with a lack of explanatory subtitles heightening continuity flaws within the scenario as most viewers will not be able to adequately comprehend what is occurring. This partly Italian funded production benefits from a rather overheated but appropriate score composed by Stelvio Cipriani, while local stunt performers follow well the directions of stunt coordinator Benito Stefanelli. A goodly portion of the dialogue is cliched as presented, and emphasis upon violence abounds, but the work is nicely paced and full of energy. It is perhaps this intensity that, despite being too often at the service of incomprehensible plot elements, raises this generally below standard production up a notch, including its ending that avoids the familiar.