Sam Fuller S/D

2. Pickup on South Street

3. I think you can guess what number 3 is.

search also dead pigeon on beethoven street

Verboten! - one of the few movies I can think of that's set in the immediate post-WWII Germany
House Of Bamboo
Scandal Sheet Fuller didn't direct, but he did write it and it's terrificly hard-boiled

+ "the murders are among us" + "i was a male war bride" + "germany year zero" + "zentropa"

Christopher Mulrooney
Los Angeles

Date: 26 March 2003
Summary: Priceless

It opens with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, first movement, before the recapitulation, on a bronze head of the composer outdoors. Then a pigeon (an extra from Dreyer's The Passion Of Joan Of Arc) flies and is shot. Title and credits.
The first scene is mirrored at the end, and both are drawn stylistically from À Bout De Souffle, by way of The Quiller Memorandum. A dog attends the operative's body, anticipating S.O.B. Exceedingly sharp cutting and the zoom lens are featured. A chase scene briefly is reflected in The Sting.
The face is Fuller's medium, even to the eyes in an extreme close-up as here. A Welles stunt: picture postcard cuts to picture.
A phone booth's rhomboid frosted panes give a Matisse portrait. The modulating power of the overhead shot later in The Mackintosh Man animates a street scene.
Rio Bravo, richly enjoyed by the hero, goes on about its business. Passersby are treated à la Bresson.
A mickey dropped in the girl's coffee dissolves in three quick separate shots, like Tippi Hedren in The Birds. The essence of photography is her face reflected in a store window, setting up the sort of André Kertesz joke that follows: blackmail photos on a couch (afterward, the contemporary painting on the wall is replaced by a seventeenth-century portrait). The game of switching heads in a photo is played.
Fuller's idea of drama is that the drugged girl wakes up and starts to leave, tout simple, as calm and bewildered as Frank Nelson after being knocked unconscious in an episode of I Love Lucy.
An exterior crowd shot at closing time looks like The Stars Look Down. Renoir's track-and-pan is set out, with an adjustable zoom.
You have to look to Peckinpah for a comparable style---The Killer Elite, for example. A quick quote from Psycho's shower scene is put to good use.
The interrogation scene is most violent by suggestion. Anton Diffring simply puts his face close to Glenn Corbett's in a two-shot and slaps his head a few times, but the compression is enormous.
Beethovens Geburtshaus is now a museum (this scene might be Sherlock Holmes in Washington). Corbett and Lang dawdle over glass cases containing his spectacles and ear trumpet, amid portraits and a pianoforte.
The comical ease of Fuller's Cologne is in a shot (compare the Place de l'Opéra in Polanski's Frantic) as the two walk down a narrow lane past commercial shops (Dr. Scholl's DIENST AM FUSS---Fusspflege).
The charming business at the Hotel Petersberg (mickey in champagne, the search for His Excellency, his touching state of druggedness) is one of several comic episodes, punctuated by Chinese landscapes of fog and hills, a ruined tower, Krupp's factory, etc. They end with a stretto of world leaders in snapshots, Lang's mailed hand, and the punchline of the main joke (below). It's accompanied by Debussy's Syrinx heard for the second time as the camera pans across a cocktail party and discovers the flutist.
Boat interior, night: purple cloths, golden light, leopard-skin, city lights slowly drifting past...
Fuller's art is, among other things, the transformations of time in small increments, as in the carnival scene with clown and confetti (thrown into the tight shot). He looks up at the cathedral spires and tilts down to a parade with a marching band playing the song at the end of Paths Of Glory. He gives you a monumental high long shot of the train station interior.
The secondary joke is the swordfight, which blundering Corbett wins by throwing everything in the room at Diffring before cutting off his head. The prime joke is a version of a famous case handled by (if memory serves) Jerry Giesler, concerning a man on trial for attempted rape who turned out to be impotent.
The Eastmancolor cinematography (by Jerzy Lipman, of Knife In The Water) and the score are priceless.

I was thinking of these already

Also, IFC did a Fuller biodoc several years ago--The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera, I think it was called. In addition to Tarantino, Tim Robbins, and Jim Jarmusch sitting around talking about how great he was, it features lots of amazing footage from Fuller films I've never seen before, not to mention plenty of interview footage with the man himself. Very, very well done, and worth tracking down.

Maybe my favourite filmmaker?

I've been known to pop a cork or two, if the vintage is right.
Angel Foam goes down like *Liquid Gold*.

Taking Sides: Shock Corridor vs. Branded to Kill

i'm envious of you, m.e.a., i'd love to see park row! i've only seen the criterion ones which are, I gather, kind of unrepresentative of him, other than Pickup. Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor get criterionized for their wierdness, but it's his string the 50s that seem most interesting

(i just turned in a paper trying to explain fuller's uniqueness as a function of his time as a hack journalist, but it didn't come off well and i didn't really believe it myself)

certain critics characterized him as a "primitive" which i think is way off the mark. he really knew what he was doing technically, even if his narratives could be a bit unhinged sometimes.

i haven't seen his shark movie.

From dvdbeaver:

Eclipse Series 5 will be The First Films of Samuel Fuller (I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona and The Steel Helmet) - scheduled for August 14th, 2007
"His films have been called raw, outrageous, sensational, and daring. In four decades of directing, Samuel Fuller created a legendarily idiosyncratic oeuvre, examining U.S. history and mythmaking in westerns, film noirs, and war epics."

How was Park Row, Morbs? I forgot all about this retrospective until seeing this thread again.

From dvdbeaver:

i don't follow this post; does it mean these movies are being screened or coming out on dvd?

it kinda sucks that his stuff that's available (the criterions) are the late 50's crazy-crazy stuff, and the earlier more focused movies aren't

Park Row is pretty "crazy" for a focused movie. Great handheld riot scene near the end.

i don't follow this post; does it mean these movies are being screened or coming out on dvd?

Coming out on DVD. Eclipse is a recently launched sister label to Criterion that puts out reasonably affordable box sets. Their mission statement:

Eclipse presents a selection of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed classics in simple, affordable editions. Each series is a brief cinematheque for the adventurous home viewer. Once a month, Eclipse will present a set of these films, usually from three to five titles, focusing on a particular director or theme. Our goal is to make available to the public many important works that until now have been impossible to see outside of the theatrical revival-house circuit. These range from some of the most sought-after titles from the world’s greatest filmmakers to eye-opening discoveries from around the world. We are proud to present these classic works, which represent the full breadth and depth of cinema history.

oh hot

I was channel surfing last night and came upon a doc about Asian actors in Hollywood on PBS. They showed a couple of clips from The Steel Helmet and The Crimson Kimono in it. Now I must see those films. Apparently Fuller was one of the first writer/directors to cast Asian-American performers in realistic, non-sterotyped roles. Didn't know that.

Forty Guns is pretty wild. And wide--very, very wide (shown off most spectacularly via a travelling shot of a dinner table--obviously meant for a theatre, but it starts at 24:30).

Bart Testa, who taught two or three film courses I took in the early '80s, plunked himself down in front of me just before the film started. I thought he'd retired, but no. I pointed out that I'd be eligible for retirement myself in 2019. He didn't indicate he'd be gone by then--"I'm still trying to get it right." Which was funny, because I used the exact same words in something I wrote about teaching a few months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IPZoZ1vRR0

martin scorsese showed this film to michael powell and powell hated it, said it "wasn't cinema"!

More like it's nothing but cinema--visually fantastic (the one shot through the barrel of a gun seems to be the source of the James Bond logo, unless someone else did it earlier), with the occasional bit of ludicrous dialogue. Not much, though--the audience I saw it with was a little too eager to laugh.

There's a good poll there between Forty Guns, Johnny Guitar, and Rancho Notorious. I'd have to rewatch the other two, but I think I liked Forty Guns the best.

i doubt that's the source for the 007 logo; two people can have a similar idea w/o one influencing the other

i don't agree with michael powell. you'd think one master of stylization would recognize another. but fuller's style is a little out of control (at least in that film) compared to what i associated w/ powell.

i prefer house of bamboo!

I watched "The Steel Helmet" last summer. Its funny how it anticipates every American film made about Vietnam (even though its set in the Korean War).

yeah, that's a good one!

it reminds me of another korean war film, "men in war" (which is less talky/preachy than "the steel helmet," and probably better)

i've still never seen "the crimson kimono," i should rectify that

Miami International Film Festival programmed this movie. Can't wait to see it:

http://meetinthelobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/White-God-Movie-Poster.jpg

The gun-barrel shot, it turns out, goes back to William Wellman (Yellow Sky, 1948). I used to get into these disagreements all the time with a former friend (former because we disagreed a little too often and a little too vigorously); I'd say A was influenced by B, she'd automatically say no. I wouldn't doubt at all that whoever devised the Bond logo had seen one or both of these films.

Wellman:
http://fiftieswesterns.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/vlcsnap-4655975.png

Fuller:
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/fortygunsgunbarrel1.jpg

Bond:
http://crackberry.com/sites/crackberry.com/files/styles/w325/public/images/wallpaper_20090810124048_12734562312.jpg?itok=BDI0a0Mv

you can probably find similar shot-through-a-gun-barrel images in other films... i feel like george stevens did one of them in "giant" or something like that.

In his autobio, Fuller has a funny behind the scenes story about 40 Guns: Apparently Marilyn Monroe (who was under contract with Forty Guns-producing Fox at the time) was looking to change her image and wanted to play the Stanwyck part in the film. She'd read the script and loved it, but was never formally considered by Fuller or the studio for the role. After the film had gone into production, Monroe visited Fuller's office to ask him about it. Fuller was good friends with her, so he felt comfortable telling her about the euphemism of the title, about the "40 Guns" represented the "40 Peni" of Stanwyck's lovers who'd become her private army in a form of sexual slavery. With Stanwyck, that was a menacing proposition, but with Monroe, due to her image audiences might find the scenario enticing and funny. Monroe agreed.

You can get Sony's Fuller Box (It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press / The Crimson Kimono / Shockproof / Scandal Sheet / Underworld U.S.A.) Cheap On Amazon.

Some of the sexualized gun-talk was as outrageous as in Red River. (That problem aside, I think Monroe was just too young for that role.)

just got China Gate from liberry

do NOT watch Forty Guns on YouTube

Saw a documentary on him tonight, directed by his daughter. More like a home-movie/essay, actually, with some well-known people reading from his memoir: Buck Henry, William Friedkin, James Franco (the connection there escaped me), Joe Dante, etc. The daughter spoke briefly via Skype before the film. Only about 30 people in attendance, in a theatre that I'd estimate holds 350-400. The film was just okay. (Saw one on Golan & Globus last night--both part of the Jewish Film Festival here.)

William Friedkin sounds exactly like Donald Trump.

i have a sealed restored big red one dvd at the store should i crack it open? i liked the movie when it came out and probably saw it on vhs a million years ago but i've never heard if the restored version makes it ten times better. i was not a fan of the bloated version of apocalypse now.

Orson Welles and Henry Jaglom talked mad shit about Fuller ("that director whom Peter likes" or something).

retro of the war films in NYC

http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2017/09/15/detail/film-is-like-a-battleground-sam-fullers-war-movies/

Something I really appreciate about Fuller is his consistent and effective use of the blow-up. Says something about his kind of economy and his kind of filmmaking, film lots of masters and punch in when needed. It's an appropriate effect, primitive and pulpy, making his images even more saturated and soaked in ink. Usually you see blow ups used for surprise or comic effect or as a Hail Mary fix, but there's tons of really effective cutting with blow-ups in stuff like Park Row and Jesse James.

Shock Corridor is very, very overwrought

By pure coincidence, I have a DVD of Pickup on South Street I got from the public library that's in my viewing queue for tonight or tomorrow night.

Saw it last night. An excellent noir. What really struck me was Widmark's performance. His character was a very tricky role but he carried it off beautifully. Thelma Ritter was another standout in this. Fuller's camera gets in so close that tiny changes in facial expression tell you all you need to know.

Yeah, Widmark's incredible in that movie. "Are you wavin' the flag at me?"

watched The Naked Kiss. there is something very cold about his films

Just saw Forty Guns on DVD last Saturday. My wife and I agreed it was often quite ridiculous without its intending to be.

I've only seen The Naked Kiss, and my main takeaway was that Fuller had a very low estimate for what his audience was able to comprehend without having it spelled out.

Crimson Kimono whips but he really both-sides’ his work in a way that is super annoying because i think his politics and actual beliefs are faaaaaaaar left-er than he presents.

Haven't seen Naked Kiss but baffled at the idea of thinking of Pickup On South Street, Fixed Bayonets, House Of Bamboo as "cold". Unsubtle, sure.

often quite ridiculous without its intending to be

I think that film's very explicit intentional camp.

Naked Kiss is my favorite Fuller. Finally caught up with Park Row (now on Criterion Channel) and while I understand how Fuller himself could find it his best movie and it's whip-quick, that's the epitome of a movie that explains everything to its audience in no uncertain terms.

More than Shock Corridor? (Also Fuller's best)

I think that film's very explicit intentional camp.

I'm willing to consider any argument along that line, but if Forty Guns was intentionally 'camp', such as Rocky Horror Picture Show and many other clearly 'camp' films, then it misses the mark more often than not. otoh, watching Fuller talk about his movies and his methods on the video interview included on Criterion's Pickup on South Street DVD, he struck me as decidedly not the sort of director to openly embrace a 'camp' sensibility. He seemed more of the proud tough guy to me.

By way of comparison, Duel in the Sun, another overly stylized western, is considered high camp these days, even though it was never directly conceived or promoted as such.

There's a whole cycle of these melodramatic campy 50's westerns - Johnny Guitar would be another clear example, there was just something in the air. I think there's a lot of queerness in Fuller - House Of Bamboo has a lot of it - and considering his egalitarian stance on much else it makes sense. Also think that in his era that could co-exist with being a "proud tough guy" to some extent.

OTM

Eddie Muller claims all of Sam Fuller's films are at heart war movies, focused on the local equivalent of the grunts in the foxhole and with a certain contempt for the commanding officers and gloryhounds. That would be consistent with emotionally deep brothers-in-arms type relationships.

The Naked Kiss was just so tough and lurid, and the characters seemed to want to exit from it and go into another film altogether. It was memorable though

My first viewing of Forty Guns. My god! A helluva picture. Aimless, what makes you think this is camp or like Johnny Guitar? While it's hyperrealist in moments, there's nothing phony about the emotions. When Bonnell guns down his own brother on his wedding night, Fuller fades to his bride in long shot standing mute beside the funeral train next to the chansonnier singing a ballad. It's so austere that I teared up.

When packing up books recently I discovered I still have Fuller's autobiography. When I unpack the boxes again I'm gonna reread it.

Um, I was explicitly quarreling with Daniel Rf's idea that Fuller intended the film to be 'camp'. I used Johnny Guitar as a counter-example, not as a complementary one.

Actually, it was Daniel who cited Johnny Guitar. I cited Rocky Horror Picture Show and Duel in the Dust. I think Fuller knew he was making a highly stylized film. The cinematography and staging are not reaching for realism. Your terms were hyper -realism and austere. I'd agree with that.

Sure! I wasn't quarreling. I wondered what you found ridiculous. Like I wrote, much of the film Fuller pitches at an operatic level to match its wide compositions, but I didn't laugh.

Characters and plot raised to an operatic pitch can easily be viewed as ridiculous if you aren't feeling in synch with it.

Every Fuller movie I've ever seen has gotten the tone exactly right. Lurid but never so over-the-top that it breaks the mood.

I think my favorite might be House of Bamboo. It's amazing-looking.

I think the fourty gunmen parading in front of Stanwyck is pretty high camp, yes.

^

Well, wouldn't you have volunteered?

Who do you think you are, Houdini?

Some very Lynchian moments in "The Naked Kiss"

Finally got around to watching Dead Pigeon On Beethoven Street - the made-for-German TV movie Fuller made in 1973. It's...well - directionless French new wave. There is a plot about a international extortion gang who funds political black mail traps, but it's mostly us (via the anonymously acted american PI) vicariously surveilling Christa Lang (a.k.a. the future Mrs. Samuel Fuller) around 70s West Germany. Co-stars include a very obviously placed Zappa 200 Motels posters. Objectively, it's not a good movie, but it is a weird one (MST3K would never have the guts).