The First Films of Samuel Fuller [3 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Samuel Fuller was not the sort of guy who seemed like one of America's great filmmakers -- he was a sawed-off former reporter and Army veteran whose tastes ran the stuff of pulp novels and lurid magazine fiction. But for all his roughhouse populism, Fuller was a director with a keen eye, a talent for dialogue that always rang true, a surprising social conscience and a bold vigor when it came to telling a story. Fuller directed his first three films for the low-budget studio Lippert Pictures, and the Criterion Collection has brought them to DVD as part of their Eclipse series in a three disc box set simply titled The First Films Of Samuel Fuller. The set includes two idiosyncratic dramas set in the Old West, I Shot Jesse James and The Baron of Arizona, and the powerful Korean War story The Steel Helmet, which is where Fuller's pure beef, no filler style emerges in its full flower for the first time. All three films have been transferred to disc in their original full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and look excellent (especially The Baron of Arizona, which was photographed by the legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe); while Poverty Row productions of the 1940's and 50's often suffer from poorly archived elements when they emerge on DVD, the prints used for these discs look clean and well cared for, and all three films have been given transfers that make the most of the images. The audio for all three films has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono and the quality is quite good, especially considering the vintage (and budgets) of these pictures. These films are all in English with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. As is the custom for Eclipse releases, no bonus materials have been included for this set, though each film's slim case includes a short, well-written essay on the picture, and this certainly represents the best quality video releases of these films to date. While Samuel Fuller's work would get stronger and more audacious with time, the three pictures included in The First Films of Samuel Fuller represent a gifted director with a powerful vision, and anyone with a taste for his work will be pleased with this set. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 3
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Black and White

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Gene Evans - Sgt. Zack
       Vincent Price - James Addison Reavis
       Preston S. Foster - John Kelley
       Barbara Britton - Cynthy Waters
       Robert Hutton - Pvt. "Conchie" Bronte
       Ellen Drew - Sofia Peralta-Reavis
       John Ireland - Bob Ford
       Richard Loo - Sgt. "Buddhahead" Tanaka
       Beulah Bondi - Lona Morales
       Vladimir Sokoloff - Pepito
       Reed Hadley - Jesse James
       Steve Brodie - Lt. Driscoll
       J. Edward Bromberg - Kane
       Reed Hadley - Grill
       Sid Melton - Joe, 2nd GI
       James Edwards - Cpl. "Medic" Thompson
       William Chun - "Short Round"
       Robert H. Barrat - Judge Adams
       Richard Monahan - Private Baldy
       Victor Kilian - Soapy
       Robin Short - Lansing
       Barbara Woodell - Mrs. Zee James
       Harold Fong - The Red
       Tom Tyler - Frank James
       Neyle Morrow - 1st GI
       Tina Rome - Rita
       Tommy Noonan - Charles Ford
       Margia Dean - Marquesa
       Byron Foulger - Room Clerk
       Eddie Dunn - Bartender
       Edward Keane - Surveyor Miller
       Jeni Le Gon - Maid
       Gene Roth - Father Guardian
       Robin Short - Troubadour
       Karen Kester - Sofia as a child
       Fred Kohler, Jr. - Damming
       Tristram Coffin - McCleary
       I. Stanford Jolley - Secretary of Interior
       Terry Frost - Morelle
       Zachary Yaconelli - Greco
       Wheaton Chambers - Brother Gregory
       Robert O'Neil - Brother Paul
       Stephen S. Harrison - Surveyor's Assistant
       Angelo Rossitto - Angie
       Phillip Pine - Man in Saloon
       Chuck Roberson - Reed Hadley's Double
       Margia Dean - Saloon Singer
       Joseph Green - Gunther
       Gene Collins - Young Man Who Tries to Kill Bob Ford
       Lynn Stalmaster - Second Lieutenant
       Margo Woode - Carry Lansing

• Director:

  Samuel Fuller

• Producer:

  Carl Hittleman, Samuel Fuller

• Screenwriter:

  Samuel Fuller

• Book Author:

  Homer Croy

• Cinematographer:

  Ernest W. Miller, James Wong Howe

• Composer (Music Score):

  Albert Glasser, Paul Dunlap

• Editor:

  Paul Landres, Arthur D. Hilton, Phil Cahn

• Art Director:

  Frank Hotaling, Theobold Holsopple

• Set Designer:

  James S. Redd, John McCarthy, Clarence I. Steensen

• Costume Designer:

  Alfred Berke

• Special Effects:

  Ray Mercer, Ben Southland

REVIEWS:

• Steel Helmet was the first war movie of many for American auteur Sam Fuller, and his first picture to gain any degree of critical attention. Independently made, the film was also a surprise success, garnering the writer-director the attention of many Hollywood studios. One of the first feature films to tackle the subject of the Korean War, Helmet featured Fuller's trademark blend of cynicism and humanism. A former soldier himself, the director captured the grim vagaries of its heroes with a no-holds-barred style. Not as energetic as his later war classic, 1980's The Big Red One, the film relies on its performances: Gene Evans, a regular in Fuller's pictures, has a powerful turn as the hard-boiled veteran; and James Edwards has a memorable turn as a wartime surgeon. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi
• The Baron of Arizona is a bizarre but intriguing little Western that is really more a "tale of the West" than a "shoot 'em up" oater. One of Samuel Fuller's early efforts, it lacks the cohesive worldview that he would bring to his best work in later years, but it already features a leading character who is entirely convinced of the rightness of his actions, a trait that many later Fuller characters will share. Reavis of course knows that he is committing an incredible con, but there is also no doubt in his mind that he is fully entitled to do this. This is a fascinating trait, and even in this early attempt Fuller clearly relishes exploring it. Unfortunately, this particular take on that trait is not as well or fully developed, and that shortcoming does damage the film, as does a couple of unconvincing reversals and some sequences which come across as a tad farfetched. Still, there's a great deal here to appreciate, from Vincent Price's excellent performance in the lead role to Ellen Drew's accomplished turn as his wife to James Wong Howe's cinematography to Fuller's growing film vocabulary. If portions of the film drag in places due to forced exposition, the verve of the other sections makes up for it. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi
• The idea for Samuel Fuller's I Shot Jesse James arose from the fledgling writer/director's interest in Cassius' murderous betrayal of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. When producer Robert L. Lippert vetoed the development of a period film about "men in bed sheets" and warned Fuller that he would only be allowed to helm a picture if its costs were low, the director opted for a more recent and lower budget tale of treachery: the shooting death of Jesse James at the hands of fellow gang member, Robert Ford. Based on Homer Croy's short stories and shot in only ten days, the film emerged as a grim, emotional study of disloyalty that thrives on its meager production value. Every "intellectual" postwar Western claims to expose the psychology of its characters. I Shot Jesse James' austerity, spare dialogue, and two-dimensional sets support its refreshing assertion that the standard motivations for betrayal -- greed, jealousy, or love -- are all there is to uncover. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi