The Samuel Fuller Film Collection (It
Happened In Hollywood / Adventure In
Sahara / Power Of The Press / Shockproof / Scandal Sheet / The Crimson
Kimono / Underworld U.S.A./Sony
DVD Set)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: B
Coming out of the Hollywood Studio System, Sam Fuller is
one of the grittiest, most cutting edge, risk-taking filmmakers ever. Like Sidney Lumet, anyone who makes a film
that is street wise or overly political, they are imitating and following
Fuller whether they know it or not. Sony
is issuing The Samuel Fuller Collection
on DVD with six films he made possible.
Ironically, the first five only involve him as writer, not
director, but so rich is his work and strong is his distinctive artistry, that
he is an Auteur on many levels. The
films are:
It Happened In Hollywood (1937) – A spoof of the
filmmaking town and a silent star (Richard Dix) who has an amusingly awkward
time staying a star in the beginning of the sound era. An insightful, amusing and sometimes scathing
look at the town; it makes a great flipside to Singing In the Rain and deserves serious rediscovery. Fay Wray of King Kong (1933) fame is the female lead and the very capable Harry
Lachman directed.
Adventure In Sahara (1938) – A sort of variant on film
like Beau Geste and Mutiny On The Bounty, a tough French
Foreign Legion Captain (C. Henry Gordon) may not be totally original, but is on
the realistic side and makes for interesting comparisons.
Power Of The Press (1943) – The first of two films
about media power abused and gone wrong, this one is a great (if short)
flip-side to Citizen Kane as a mad
editor (Otto Kruger) decides he can control everything just by writing up what
he wants things to be, no matter how much of a lie or how much damage that lie
will do. More timely than ever, it is
remarkable and pulls no punches. Guy
Kibbee, Lee Tracy, Gloria Dickson and Victor Jory also star.
Shockproof (1949) – The Noir sensibility of
Fuller meets the pre-Melodrama sensibility of director Douglas Sirk in this
unlikely collaboration about the deadly love triangle between a woman-out-of-prison
(Patricia Knight), her criminal lover (John Baragrey) and her parole officer
(Cornell Wilde) who falls for her. The
ending may not work, but the rest of it is very effective.
Scandal Sheet (1952) – Fuller’s other take on
the newspaper trade is based on a novel he wrote. When a new reporter (John Derek!) decides to
investigate a murder, his boss (Broderick Crawford) is not very happy,
especially when he may have something to hide about it. Rosemary De Camp, Donna Redd and Harry Morgan
also star in this exceptionally good thriller.
The Crimson Kimono (1959) – Fuller takes the helm in
this tale of murder and racism as two detectives (Glenn Corbett of Homicidal, James Shigeta of Die Hard) hunt for the killer of a
stripper in Chinatown, but prejudice and their involvement with the same woman
will make this anything but a regular case.
Underworld U.S.A. (1961) – Cliff Robertson plays a
man who joins the Mob to get revenge on them for killing his father when he was
a child. A very effective,
uncompromising revenge thriller and one of Robertson’s finest moments, Fuller
had also made the transition into widescreen filmmaking with ease.
All are 1.33 X 1 full frame presentations except for Kimono and Underworld, which are anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 and looking good
if not always great. I expected the
later two films to look better given their age and the advantages of anamorphic
presentation, but these transfers are not always as vivid as they would be on
35mm film or the inevitable Blu-rays, with grain and/or detail limits. However, Video Black is pretty good
throughout and the older films look like they have never transfers. All the prints used look clean enough too. For the record, the Directors of Photography
are Joseph Walker (Lost Horizon) on Hollywood, Franz Planer (Roman Holiday) on Sahara, John Stumar on Press,
Charles Lawton, Jr. (the original 3:10
To Yuma) on Shockproof, Burnett
Guffey (Bonnie & Clyde) on Scandal, Sam Leavitt (the original Cape Fear) on Kimono and Hal Mohr on Underworld. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono throughout is very
clean throughout considering the age of the films and work to clean them up
seems to have been done.
Extras include Samuel Fuller’s Search For Truth
with Tim Robbins on the Press disc,
the documentary Samuel Fuller Storyteller on Scandal, Curtis Hanson: The Culture Of The Crimson
Kimono on its DVD and Martin Scorsese on Underworld U.S.A.,
making this a must-see, must-own set. Hope
this release encourages others to release their Fuller films.
- Nicholas Sheffo
