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Post by petrolino on Sept 23, 2018 16:10:09 GMT
Forty Guns opens with a stunning cinematic intro, one of the best ever. Upon a glorious black-and-white widescreen canvas Joseph F Biroc’s startling CinemaScope cinematography is coupled with Fuller’s inspired camera movements and bold dramatic angles to create a dynamic visual effect. Compositions bounce back and forth between long shots and close-ups, amplified in the outstanding visuals is the stories noir-ish undertones, the characters are often shrouded in deep black shadows. From vast landscapes to confined spaces, from the opening moment to the last second the film is composed with incredible visual flair. In 1957 Forty Guns was criticized and dismissed by American film critics, over their heads was the stylized melodramatics, they missed the big picture, thematically there is so much packed into the short 80 min run time. A testament to Fuller's craftsmanship is the fact that the stylistic production was conceived with a very low budget. The abstact film however was loved by European film critics and audiences who grasped the brilliance of Fuller's cinematic art, the originality of his multi dimensional work. The film has been an inspiration for directors as diverse as Sergio Leone and Seijun Suzuki, even Clint Eastwood borrows a moment he uses in his Unforgiven. Fuller had said that one thread theme of Forty Guns was juvenile delinquency and how we need to teach kids about the proper use of guns and how to be good adults. A wonderful cast is headed with a commanding performance from the black-clad matriarch, an excellent rabidly aggressive lead from Barbara Stanwyck. She also did her own dangerous horse stunt work in the dramatic storm scene. Barry Sullivan is perfectly suited playing the stoic rugged ex lawman. The violence of love … Floridly melodramatic , stylistic hysteria, elements of a Gothic romance, written with outrageous dialogue that serves up a pulp drama rich in Freudian subtext, and in typical Fuller style two songs are included one in particular adding a truly weird note. There is just so much to admire and love about this film !! .. it has become one of my essential favourite films 10/10 Transcending the confines of a routine generic Western, the film as the full title accurately suggests is, Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns manfromplanetx --- Thanks for this review. I just saw it for the first time this week. I knew I love the film, but I had a hard time describing the story. This has all the feeling of a big black-and-white Western on the widescreen. The cinematography was wonderful and so was the music and song. But, I had a hard time understanding the relationship between Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan. I also, liked the song sung at the bathhouse. It is so rare that we get to see how these cowboys kept clean in the old westerns. I never imagined they could rent a bath and have someone singing there too. I know there have been other black-and-white widescreen westerns, but I can't think of any. Can we name a few?
There's Raoul Walsh's widescreen western 'The Big Trail' (1930) with John Wayne.
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Post by kijii on Sept 23, 2018 17:02:05 GMT
Forty Guns opens with a stunning cinematic intro, one of the best ever. Upon a glorious black-and-white widescreen canvas Joseph F Biroc’s startling CinemaScope cinematography is coupled with Fuller’s inspired camera movements and bold dramatic angles to create a dynamic visual effect. Compositions bounce back and forth between long shots and close-ups, amplified in the outstanding visuals is the stories noir-ish undertones, the characters are often shrouded in deep black shadows. From vast landscapes to confined spaces, from the opening moment to the last second the film is composed with incredible visual flair. In 1957 Forty Guns was criticized and dismissed by American film critics, over their heads was the stylized melodramatics, they missed the big picture, thematically there is so much packed into the short 80 min run time. A testament to Fuller's craftsmanship is the fact that the stylistic production was conceived with a very low budget. The abstact film however was loved by European film critics and audiences who grasped the brilliance of Fuller's cinematic art, the originality of his multi dimensional work. The film has been an inspiration for directors as diverse as Sergio Leone and Seijun Suzuki, even Clint Eastwood borrows a moment he uses in his Unforgiven. Fuller had said that one thread theme of Forty Guns was juvenile delinquency and how we need to teach kids about the proper use of guns and how to be good adults. A wonderful cast is headed with a commanding performance from the black-clad matriarch, an excellent rabidly aggressive lead from Barbara Stanwyck. She also did her own dangerous horse stunt work in the dramatic storm scene. Barry Sullivan is perfectly suited playing the stoic rugged ex lawman. The violence of love … Floridly melodramatic , stylistic hysteria, elements of a Gothic romance, written with outrageous dialogue that serves up a pulp drama rich in Freudian subtext, and in typical Fuller style two songs are included one in particular adding a truly weird note. There is just so much to admire and love about this film !! .. it has become one of my essential favourite films 10/10 Transcending the confines of a routine generic Western, the film as the full title accurately suggests is, Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns
Jessica Drummond: I'm not interested in you, Mr. Bonnell. It's your trademark, .. May I feel it? manfromplanetx --- Thanks for this review. I always enjoy your reviews. I just saw it for the first time this week. I knew I loved the film, but I had a hard time describing the story. This has all the feeling of a big black-and-white Western (on the widescreen, no less). The cinematography was wonderful and so was the music and song. However, I had a hard time understanding the relationship between Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan. I also, liked the song sung at the bathhouse. It is so rare that we get to see how these cowboys kept clean in the old west. I never imagined they could rent a bath and have someone singing there too. I know there have been other black-and-white widescreen westerns, but I can't think of any. Can we name a few?
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biker1
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Post by biker1 on Sept 23, 2018 19:59:37 GMT
Exactly the type of enthusiastic waffle that makes me cringe. And of course, it's "over their heads"
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Post by timshelboy on Sept 23, 2018 20:14:11 GMT
Not much of a fan overall (although I don't object exactly) but the only one I really like I don't think has been mentioned yet - his war drama CHINA GATE with Angie Dickinson and Nat King Cole among the troops! Sorry to say i gave FORTY GUNS a second chance earlier in the year and gave up after twenty minutes or so
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Post by kijii on Sept 23, 2018 20:18:30 GMT
Exactly the type of enthusiastic waffle that makes me cringe. And of course, it's "over their heads" Why does it make you cringe?
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biker1
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Post by biker1 on Sept 24, 2018 6:03:28 GMT
All that precious over-analysis sounds like an attempt to align with some critical fraternity the rest of us are too dumb to belong to, the suggestion that it's merits are over the heads of other viewers is simply rude. Besides which, it reads like diatribe lifted from somewhere else. I've read it all before and it just doesn't sound authentic. (ie) pretentious.
that's why it makes me cringe.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 24, 2018 9:29:28 GMT
All that precious over-analysis sounds like an attempt to align with some critical fraternity the rest of us are too dumb to belong to, the suggestion that it's merits are over the heads of other viewers is simply rude. Besides which, it reads like diatribe lifted from somewhere else. I've read it all before and it just doesn't sound authentic. (ie) pretentious. that's why it makes me cringe. Using the correct context , the full sentence from my post actualy reads… " In 1957 Forty Guns was criticized and dismissed by American film critics, over their heads was.." Over at the film review and critic site Rotten Tomatoes I just came across this .. "Forty Guns was not well received by American film critics, but in Europe it is a revered work, particularly in France where Fuller has become a cult figure and is considered one of the most important and innovative of post WW II American filmmakers" In stark contrast to 1957 the film is widely critically acclaimed, and today at RT, Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns currently holds 100% the highest critical rating !"
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Post by koskiewicz on Sept 24, 2018 13:22:31 GMT
One Fuller film I thought was an oddball is "The Baron of Arizona" which casts Vincent Price in a western.
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biker1
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Post by biker1 on Sept 24, 2018 16:16:35 GMT
Exactly. And I wonder how much of it's new found popularity owes to the endorsement of trendy names like Rosenbaum or Scorsese etc. It's a fashionable title, which would otherwise be ignored - like so many 'better' movies are.
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Post by petrolino on Sept 24, 2018 21:27:03 GMT
The Naked Kiss (1964) is a Pulp Fiction extraordinaire , mesmerizing and boldly abstract, a film that is visually startling emotionally compelling and radically feminist. A remarkable high point for Fuller, the film is a masterpiece of the early Sixties. Fuller the consummate cinematic stylist, a director for social justice here blends art film and B-noir to form an intense critique on the hypocrisy and social degeneracy that lurks just beneath the surface of establishment America.
Hi planet. Thanks for the reviews on some of Sam Fuller's movies.
For anyone interested in seeing 'The Naked Kiss', it's been playing from time to time on the movie channel Talking Pictures. This channel's available to U K viewers through SKY if you have it.
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Post by petrolino on Sept 24, 2018 21:55:09 GMT
One Fuller film I thought was an oddball is "The Baron of Arizona" which casts Vincent Price in a western. It says at the Criterion website that Vincent Price cited this as one of his favourite roles. The producer Robert Lippert was said to be a fan of Sam Fuller's novels.
I've just been reading at The Spooky Isles how Lippert intended to film a version of 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson in 1959, with Fritz Lang in the picture as director. It became Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona's 'The Last Man On Earth' (1964), released ten years after 'Monster On The Ocean Floor' (1954) was produced by Roger Corman and distributed by Lippert. Lippert kept his working title 'Naked Terror' for the documentary 'Naked Terror' (1961) which Price narrated.
I wonder if an audio of 'Godard In Hollywood' exists - Jean-Luc Godard's panel discussion with Roger Corman, Peter Bogdanovich, King Vidor & Fuller at the University of Southern California? The transcript in 'Interview' cites it as 1968, which would be around the time Fuller was an advisor on 'Targets' (1968).
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Post by petrolino on Sept 29, 2018 14:56:58 GMT
Steel Helmet Shock Corridor 'The Steel Helmet' was full vindication for Sam Fuller's risky move to Lippert Studios. It's been written that Fuller decided to direct his own movies after seeing Douglas Sirk's crime melodrama 'Shockproof' (1949), a film he was credited as having co-written with journalist Helen Deutsch (who co-produced the picture with filmmaker S. Sylvan Simon). I think it's actually pretty good, the tortured tale of a doomed parole officer (played by Cornel Wilde) and the tough parolee he falls for (Patricia Roc switching hair colours). There's a spectacular balcony stunt involving a 3rd violation parolee, Slippery Joe Wilson (played by King Donovan), that's worth the price of admission. The filmmakers drew inspiration from another tough film noir, Otto Preminger's con operation 'Fallen Angel' (1945).
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Post by kijii on Oct 2, 2018 5:00:34 GMT
The Crimson Kimono (1959) I watched this movie twice today and find it to be about the best B movie I have ever discovered. There are no real big-named actors in it but the story, the writing, the camera work, and the acting are all wonderful!! (I will be reviewing it on my usual thread. What a wonderful discovery this movie is to me.)
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Post by manfromplanetx on Oct 2, 2018 9:58:52 GMT
The Crimson Kimono (1959) I watched this movie twice today and find it to be about the best B movie I have ever discovered. There are no real big-named actors in it but the story, the writing, the camera work, and the acting are all wonderful!! (I will be reviewing it on my usual thread. What a wonderful discovery this movie is to me.) Hi there kijii I just caught up with all your wonderful ! Fuller reviews , thanks for sharing your thoughts, a terrific inspiration for the uninitiated, for me, now I just want to go & re-watch the Crimson Kimono ! *edit...Location filming, Little Tokyo downtown Los Angeles, centre of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. Samuel Fuller said of making that dramatic opener .. " The opening scene was really tough. I had three cameras, one up high on a roof, two others in vehicles, and we just shot it live, no rehearsal, in real traffic. Ironically, I really did not get much dramatic reaction. This girl was running down a street and nobody seemed to care. Nobody looked. An almost naked, six-foot-tall blonde is running for her life down the street and nobody does a double take. When I fired a gun-shot and she fell to the pavement, nobody ran over and nobody ran away. People were in a daze. Some guy in a local store called the cops, and we had to pack up and high-tail it out of there before I could get my close-ups. " Fuller was "fascinated by the Far East" nearly a third of his films centre on racial and cultural conflict in American-Asian relations. "Personally, the thrill I got out of making House of Bamboo was shooting in Japan, having a major studio budget..."
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Post by kijii on Oct 3, 2018 20:25:12 GMT
The Crimson Kimono (1959) I watched this movie twice today and find it to be about the best B movie I have ever discovered. There are no real big-named actors in it but the story, the writing, the camera work, and the acting are all wonderful!! (I will be reviewing it on my usual thread. What a wonderful discovery this movie is to me.) Hi there kijii I just caught up with all your wonderful ! Fuller reviews , thanks for sharing your thoughts, a terrific inspiration for the uninitiated, for me, now I just want to go & re-watch the Crimson Kimono ! *edit...Location filming, Little Tokyo downtown Los Angeles, centre of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. Samuel Fuller said of making that dramatic opener .. " The opening scene was really tough. I had three cameras, one up high on a roof, two others in vehicles, and we just shot it live, no rehearsal, in real traffic. Ironically, I really did not get much dramatic reaction. This girl was running down a street and nobody seemed to care. Nobody looked. An almost naked, six-foot-tall blonde is running for her life down the street and nobody does a double take. When I fired a gun-shot and she fell to the pavement, nobody ran over and nobody ran away. People were in a daze. Some guy in a local store called the cops, and we had to pack up and high-tail it out of there before I could get my close-ups. " Fuller was "fascinated by the Far East" nearly a third of his films centre on racial and cultural conflict in American-Asian relations. "Personally, the thrill I got out of making House of Bamboo was shooting in Japan, having a major studio budget..." manfromplanetx-- Regarding House of Bamboo, I need to give this another try since I have the DVD (and with commentary track too). If nothing else, I want to hear the commentary track which will probably give me more information about Fuller. Do you have this DVD with the commentary track (Fox Film Noir)?
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Post by manfromplanetx on Oct 4, 2018 5:23:55 GMT
manfromplanetx-- Regarding House of Bamboo, I need to give this another try since I have the DVD (and with commentary track too). If nothing else, I want to hear the commentary track which will probably give me more information about Fuller. Do you have this DVD with the commentary track (Fox Film Noir)? An insightful interview which may be of interest to you kijii .. Samuel Fuller gives his thoughts on style and interpretation of his crime dramas and is asked about their relationship to film noir www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/features/fuller/
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Post by petrolino on Oct 5, 2018 19:23:56 GMT
manfromplanetx-- Regarding House of Bamboo, I need to give this another try since I have the DVD (and with commentary track too). If nothing else, I want to hear the commentary track which will probably give me more information about Fuller. Do you have this DVD with the commentary track (Fox Film Noir)? An insightful interview which may be of interest to you kijii .. Samuel Fuller gives his thoughts on style and interpretation of his crime dramas and is asked about their relationship to film noir www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/features/fuller/
Nice article, thanks.
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Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Nov 7, 2019 22:03:50 GMT
saw house of bamboo at the library---any good?
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