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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Three great films for the price of one., 11 Sep 2007
Criterion's new Eclipse Series was set up in order to make available some of cinema's forgotten classics that have been hard to get hold of or see until now. This is the fifth instalment, which contains three films by Samuel Fuller. Fuller, who grew frustrated with the lack of success in Hollywood as scriptwriter, accepted an offer from Lippert Productions to direct and write three film. The three films in this set are those three.
*****"I Shot Jesse James" (1949)*****
This film is based on the true story of Jesse James, the notorious outlaw who was shot in the back by his fellow gang member Robert Ford. Samuel Fuller's film expands the story a bit in as far as Robert's motivation for his action giving it a love angle as opposed to a greed angle. Fuller in the process creates a psychological western of a man racked with guilt and paranoia.
Cast:
John Ireland (Red River, 1948; Raw Deal,1948; All the King's Men,1949)
Barbara Britten (So Proudly We Hail!, 1943)
Preston S Foster (The Informer,1935; The Harvey Girls,1946)
*****"The Baron of Arizona"(1950)*****
This film was inspired by a another true story which Fuller elaborates on extensively to create a wonderfully entertaining film about a forger who goes to great length to try and steal the state of Arizona. The film uses great chiaroscuro lighting and cinematography by the great James Wong Howe (The Thin Man,1934; Yankee Doodle Dandy,1942; Sweet Smell of Success,1957) to create marvellous atmosphere. Mention has to made of Vincent Price's (Laura,1944; Leave Her to Heaven,1946) performance which for me is a career highlight, and his personal favourite, as the crooked but not entirely malicious baron.
*****"The Steel Helmut"(1951)*****
Samuel Fuller is usually remembered for his war films like "The Big Red One"(1980) but this was his first one. It follows a group of GI's from different races and their interaction during the Korean war. As a low budget picture costing only $100000 to make it does show some evidence of this especially in the jungle at the start of the film. It would however become a huge hit ,in the process making him profit of $6 million, and would secure him an offer from 20th Century Fox where he would make another war film, "Fixed Bayonets"(1951).
About the dvds:
As with all Criterion DVDs the transfers are of an excellent standard with good contrast. The films are presented in their own slimline case with some notes about each film inside. There are no extra features in the Eclipse Series but at this price one can't complain. Well worth it.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Sam Fuller's first three movies. Criterion, what are you telling us?, 14 Jul 2009
I Shot Jesse James:
"Whatya got to eat?" asks Bob Ford, who backshot his great friend Jesse James not too long ago. Says Joe, the bartender at the Silver King Saloon in Creede, Colorado, "Sweet corn, cornmeal mush, cornpone with cracklins and corn whiskey." "I'll have it," says Bob.
Lukewarm corn, cooked ambitiously, is about all there is in Sam Fuller's debut as a director. Fuller had been writing scripts and story outlines in Hollywood for quite awhile. Finally he made a three-movie deal with a B movie producer: If I can direct the movies, and I won't charge you, I'll write the screenplays. These three movies are Criterion's Eclipse Series 5-The First Films of Samuel Fuller. The set includes I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona and The Steel Helmet.
The first of the three, I Shot Jesse James, is a potentially intriguing story of a loser, but told with a script that has little tension, directed with little flair and acted, for the most part, with a dull, steady cadence. A good deal of the dialogue and many of the actors are just competent. Still, if you're a Fuller fan, I Killed Jesse James may be worth watching.
Fuller, in my view, was not one of the great directors (or screenwriters). He wasn't one of the great craftsmen, either. What he had was a tough, knock-about personal story, a confident willingness to dance to his own music, a streak of subversiveness that could undermine the fatuousness of Hollywood and its establishment, and enough talent to take the commonplace material and actors he often was dealt and turn at least parts of his movies into something to admire. He was the kind of Hollywood non-Hollywood director that some cineastes and film critics adore. His movies are variable. In my opinion, most of them don't hold up very well unless the viewer has been first captured by Sam Fuller's iconic anti-establishment reputation. Pickup on South Street is probably his best work, with fine performances by an A-level cast and an unusual script considering it was originally intended as an anti-Commie screed. The Big Red One, highly praised by many, is an effective war movie dear to Fuller's heart, but it seems to go on and on and on.
For the rest of his movies, those that I've seen, there are excellent bits and pieces mixed into a B-movie sensibility, awkward dialogue (almost any scenes involving a man and woman), and too much discursiveness. Fuller, in my opinion, needed a strong editor and a strong writer with whom to collaborate. I have a feeling that Fuller would find both prospects completely unsatisfactory.
But back to I Shot Jesse James. When Bob Ford (John Ireland) puts a bullet in the back of his friend, Jesse James, Ford hopes to gain amnesty and a large reward. He'd been befriended by James and had been part of James' gang. Ford wants to marry the love of his life, the singer Cynthy Waters (Barbara Britton). He thinks he can leave the criminal life and settle down with Cynthy. Instead she rejects him. He's called a coward and a backshooter. Most people hold him in contempt. He gets only a small part of the reward. He still thinks that if only he can make money he can win Cynthy. And there's that straight talkin' guy who likes Cynthy, too, a man named John Kelley (Preston Foster, top billed) who keeps showing up. There's a showdown, and that's that. John Ireland does what he can.
The Baron of Arizona:
The first six minutes of The Baron of Arizona is a ponderous exposition about Arizona by a small group of dignified actors congratulating each other on Arizona's new statehood. Among them is one of the most stilted of voice-over narrators, Reed Hadley. It's a terrible start to what could have been an exceedingly clever movie. After Hadley gives us the secret of James Addison Reavis (Vincent Price), Sam Fuller moves us back from 1912 to 1872. Here, we meet Reavis at the start of his great scam to win the territory of Arizona for himself through forged Spanish land grant documents, self-created histories, great forgery skills, the placing of forged documents in a Spanish monastery, and the grooming of a little girl who he convinces her illiterate guardians is the heir to the phony Peralta land grant claim. In time, love will come about.
Vincent Price and the Reavis scam is what the movie is all about. The scam's potential keeps us interested. Price makes Reavis a complicated and intriguing character who captures our interest and a good deal of our sympathy for his hard work. The movie, however, is flawed by its flashback structure, it's jumbled first 40 minutes, by some standard B movie acting and by Hadley's limitations as an actor and as a really irritating narrator. Fuller's tell-us-the-con-early structure bleeds the air out of the balloon. Fuller shot this Poverty Row effort in 15 days.
When I've had the opportunity to watch The Steel Helmet, I'll add comments. Until then, these two of three films are examples of flawed B movies, but Sam Fuller fans and, perhaps, others might find them of interest. The DVDs look just fine.
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