fuller is giving his view on cinema in general. its a beautiful view too.
what’s your favorite fuller film, and why?
i actually haven’t seen a lot of his films. but for the ones i’m familiar with, i love “shock corridor” most. it has the most unique mood and feel. at some points, the film almost borders on the surreal.
THE BIG RED ONE.
Says it all. Brilliantly.
Shock Corridor is probably my favourite. Gorgeously shot, and the film proceeds like a series of kicks to the head. The rainstorm in the corridor is demented brilliance, and the close-up of Johnny as the voice-over exclaims “Nymphos!” is one of the most blissfully silly things Fuller ever did. Actually, every second of the nympho sequence is golden.
However, The Big Red One is right up there, and Pickup on South Street is pretty fine, if only for Thelma Ritter. And while it has been a while since I saw it, I remember enjoying Park Row quite a lot—it’s punchy and passionate like all the best Fuller films.
Also, that book of his (“A Third Face”) is a damn good time in its own right.
“shock corridor” feels like a nightmare you that get deeper and deeper in, and soon realize that theres no hope of waking up. it’s also a beautifully shot film by stanley cortez.
Did anybody else think he was talking about his film specifically?
it doesnt matter much. generally, if one is giving his view on cinema, it only stands to resaon that he would practice it in his own films also.
Fuller fans should definitely investigate Mika Kaurismäki’s TIGRERO – A FILM THAT WAS NEVER MADE – which is essentially a long, rambling, often enormously entertaining monologue by Fuller (with occasional interjections from a bemused Jim Jarmusch) as he revisits locations for a 1950s Brazilian melodrama starring John Wayne and Ava Gardner that was cancelled in the preproduction stages. Some of Fuller’s location footage ended up in SHOCK CORRIDOR, but most of it ended up here.
It came out on DVD in Britain a couple of months ago, courtesy of Bluebell Pictures, but it’s been out in the US (on Fantoma) for some years.
FORTY GUNS is great, and it would be stellar to have PARK ROW and CRIMSON KIMONO out on DVD. It’s so great that Eclipse made STEEL HELMET available, and it would be awesome if they could do another box of more obscure Fuller’s…SHOCK CORRIDOR is my favorite, but I have yet to see WHITE DOG or the re-cut of BIG RED ONE, though I like the original fairly well.
I thought he was talking about film in general.
Speaking of emotion, does anybody remember Fuller’s MERRIL’S MARAUDERS? I think it was from ‘61, starring Jeff Chandler as Merril – it’s about the forgotten American volunteer rangers fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma/India theater. I’ve seen it only on laser disc uncut/ cinemascope, and on cable tv back in the good old days of AMC (before the pop-up trivia crap and annoying couch guest talkinghead critics, not to mention commercials). The film was filled with Fuller’s signature touches- quick, raw in-your-face action. I’ve seen “Steel Helmet” and “Big Red One” re-cut, both brilliant. I know, I know… Fuller was a member of the Big Red One himself but, and I might get jumped for this, in my opinion as far as on-screen emotion, Merril’s Marauders captured it quite more than the other two films, even without the blood and gore. Here, the characters all look high on fever, famished, emotionally spent, and really, really TIRED. But just like the real men they’re portraying, they went and kept on going and going ’til you can almost see their lives slipping away on screen.
Mr. Brooke, thanks also for mentioning TIGRERO which was great. God bless Fantoma DVD!
I’m starting to get really excited about Fuller again. I sort of went through a cooling off period with him, I’m not sure why, but suddenly I feel like his films are important to see. No one has just that eye that he did, where he can make you feel tenderly even as he’s rubbing your nose in shit. Shock Corridor is the most convincing and disturbing portrait of an asylum this side of Titicut Follies (much more so than Suddenly Last Summer, say). The Naked Kiss is like the work of some brilliant maniac — the scene where the hooker makes the brothel madam eat money. What a sad, bitter film. In the beginning she has to beat down a man, she changes her life and tries to become respectable, and then she finds she still has to beat down a man. There is no such thing as respectability, Fuller seems to say over and over again, and there are no heroes. Just retarded children and lunatics, who are sort of the lucky ones after all.
i just saw “house of bamboo” for the first time. it didn’t impress me too much, but i loved the ending. it was very cinematic, and very beautiful with the images of robert ryan dying high above the city of tokyo on a model set of the universe as a fairground ride. it felt so grand in widescreen. the only transcendent moment in the film.
but it really reminded me how much i love “street with no name”. that’s a brilliant, brilliant noir.
THE STEEL HELMET is my favorite.
Though THE BIG RED ONE, and BARON OF ARIZONA both are at a close second.
THE NAKED KISS and THE WHITE DOG are great concepts with good writing, marred by terrible acting. Definitely worth watching, but one has ignore the acting.
I dislike SHOCK CORRIDOR. I know that it was groundbreaking independent cinema, but I can’t help feeling like I’m watching a public service announcement concerning mental illness. It reminds me too much of REEFER MADNESS, an appeal for public support that looks campy today. Though Fuller was earnest, and raising awareness about an actual problem, while the makers of REEFER MADNESS were probably insane.
My favorite is THE NAKED KISS—Sam Fuller once said that if a film doesn’t give you a hard-on in the first few minutes you might as well throw it in the goddamn garbage. I’m a female but had things turned out biologically differently, I would’ve had an erection high enough to ride the roller coaster without an adult. And say what you want about the supposed terrible acting in Fuller’s films, but there is no denying the sheer force of the beautiful Constance Towers, who really shaved her head for the opening scene, a move that Bette Davis surely would’ve tipped her hat off to.
Even without the man’s background in newspapers that surely contributed to his sensationalist direction, Fuller was one of the most thoughtful directors, and his treatment of different cultures and especially racism is more hard-hitting and still cuts deeper than the more well-known films of Stanley Kramer; watch GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER and then WHITE DOG and you’ll see which one has aged better, and which director had more brains and balls.
Serena, I love your comment.
I just saw Shock Corridor a few weeks ago – the first Fuller film I’ve seen. I have to say, I really liked it and definitely want to check out more of his work. What is a good one to check out next?
I guess I’m the only one here to prefer Pickup on South Street. Has the best overall performances in a Fuller film. Still can’t get past the TV movie of the week casting choices in White Dog which i watched a few weeks ago. Kristy McNichols? It would be like casting Scott Baio in The Wrestler.
Keagan, Fuller made films in a lot of different genres. If you’re partial to westerns, check out Run of the Arrow and 40 Guns. If you like war movies, Fuller made a few great ones: The Big Red One, Fixed Bayonets, The Steel Helmet. If the urban noir of Shock Corridor is more to your liking, then The Naked Kiss and Pickup on South Street would be good follow-ups. Also, two later films of his, White Dog and Street of No Return, are worth checking out. :) Justin
I was on the set of “White Dog” for a week and watched Sam shoot several scenes. Great man. A filmmkaer like no other, really.
The Steel Helmet
Pickup on South Street
House of Bamboo
Hell and High Water
The Crimson Kimono
Forty Guns
Shock Corridor
The Naked Kiss
White Dog (which is just out on DVD)
Plus his great performance in Wenders’ The State of Things.
I can’t reccomend him highly enough
@Noel -
Fantoma is fabulous (sorry Criterion, you are too). They are going to be releasing a very rare Fuller soon, Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1973). The Fantoma website is very cool.
Justin
@Justin
Sweet, thanks Justin. Can’t wait for the Fantomas release.
@At all
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is great too. Great concept, dialogue, and acting.
Fuller was light years ahead of his era, demonstrating multiculturalism, the pointlessness of suffering, the ignobility of poverty, and the unstoppable yet senseless ravages of war. I get the sense that he was tough but put on more hardass-ness to hide that he was actually soft and gooey inside. He was deconstructing racism, and the marginalization of minorities (ethnic, mental, socioeconomic) in the 40s and 50s!!! He must have seemed like an alien, a complete outsider back then, since he presented the most outlandishly liberal ideas in a manner that is consistent with today’s view of these things: part and parcel of commonsense. At best, he must have seemed like a time-traveler.
@JUSTINB – Hey thanks for the info. It’s hard for me to access the Fantoma website but that’s awesome news about “Dead Pigeon on Beethoven St.” I’ve only seen it on a bad PAL transfer, but it’s definitely a signature Fuller pulp. You can’t go wrong with a gun-toting dame. And Stephanie Audran was great in it. I wondered what the New Wave kids thought about it, cause it almost looked like one.
Shock Corridor is one of my favorite films
@Matt, mine too.
I just watched Shock Corridor again last night. What a dynamite film. The color sequences always take my breath away. So much to love about this movie — Pagliacci singing with the invisible knife, then later with the chewng gum; the incredible performance of the actor who plays Trent. Where did these actors go? I’ve never seen them before or since. A great movie about American social psychology — ranks with The Searchers, God’s Stepchildren, and Brokeback Mountain in that regard (though I think Shock Corridor is the best of all of these). I always see new details when I watch this: like the way all the strippers have photos of their boyfriends taped to their dressing room mirrors. We need a Fuller today. I think The Believer was a Fuller-esque film; Fuller would have liked the idea behind it.
Something else I forgot to mention about Shock: has anyone noticed the absolute harshness of the lighting Fuller used? He must have had tons of hot lights going to create those really sharp, distinct shadows on the asylum walls. The shadows seem to deepen and lengthen as the film progresses, while the actors themselves seem to be dissolving slightly around the edges.
Pick up On South Street for me too!……. such a crisp stylish noir, and Widmark at his peak.
yeah, “shock corridor” is a very expressionistic film. give due credit to stanley cortez for the great lighting schemes. it’s truly a new wave “cabinet of dr caligari”.
Nate
When Ferdinand has the conversation with Fuller, I thought that when Fuller said cinema is emotion, he was referring specifically to his film, not cinema in general. I thought Ferdinand’s question was mistranslated by the lady, and that it was some kind of comment on communication between the French and Americans. Did I just read it wrong (several times), or am I misinterpreting it? I’m assuming the subtitles aren’t to blame, since it was the criterion dvd.