Summer of Sam

Film is like a battleground... Love, hate, action, violence, death. In one word, emotion!

A genuine maverick of the studio era, the primitive and often merciless tone of Sam Fuller’s filmic output was largely unappreciated in its initial release. With the benefit of hindsight and the great influence his work has had on subsequent generations (he was celebrated by The French New Wave, appearing in cameo in Godard’s Pierrot le fou, and sited as a major influence by contemporary filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch) it is clear that Fuller is a distinctly American treasure. From his marginalized characters and low-rent settings, to his startling visual rhythm and his distinct graphic style (characterized by Martin Scorsese as “energetic simplicity”) the series is pleased to present a selection of his Fuller’s most brutal American pulp films.

I Shot Jesse James

July 3 at 8PM (Sam Fuller, 1949, USA, 81 min.)

After years of crime reporting, screenwriting, and authoring pulp novels, Samuel Fuller made his directorial debut with the lonesome ballad of Robert Ford (played by Red River’s John Ireland), who fatally betrayed his friend, the notorious Jesse James. At once modest and intense, I Shot Jesse James is an engrossing pocket portrait of guilt and psychological torment, and an auspicious beginning for the maverick filmmaker.

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Pickup on South Street

July 10 at 8PM (Sam Fuller, 1953, USA, 80 min.)

Petty crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has his eyes fixed on the big score. When the cocky three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy (Jean Peters), he finds a haul bigger than he could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. secrets. Tailed by manipulative Feds and the unwitting courier’s Communist puppeteers, Skip and Candy find themselves in a precarious gambit that pits greed against redemption, Right versus Red, and passion against self preservation. With its dazzling cast and Fuller’s signature raw energy and hardboiled repartee, Pickup on South Street is a true film noir classic. Archival 35mm print.

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Underworld, U.S.A.

July 17 at 8PM (Sam Fuller, 1961, USA, 99 min.)

In this hard-boiled gangster noir, fourteen-year-old Tolly Devlin sees four hoods beat his father to death. Twenty years later, the killers have risen to the top of the crime syndicate and Tolly (Cliff Robertson) has a plan for revenge. As gritty and brutal as only Fuller could fashion. Archival 35mm print. Not available on DVD!

 

 

 

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Shock Corridor

July 24 at 8PM (Sam Fuller, 1963, USA, 101 min.)

Seeking a Pulitzer Prize, a reporter has himself committed to a mental hospital to investigate a murder. As he closes in on the killer, madness closes in on him. Writer, director, and producer Samuel Fuller proves himself by one of America’s most passionate cinematic craftsmen as he masterfully charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and dementia. Archival 35mm print.

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The Big Red One

July 31 at 8PM (Sam Fuller, 1980, USA, 162 min.)

This episodic retelling of the exploits of the American First Infantry Division during World War II focuses on the squad's sergeant (Lee Marvin) and four of the soldiers. They struggle to survive campaigns from North Africa in November 1942, to Czechoslovakia in May 1945, along the way participating in the invasion of Sicily and the D-Day invasion and freeing a lunatic asylum and a concentration camp. Cut in half (!) on its original release, Fuller’s tour de force, based largely on his own experiences, has been reconstructed to its original epic glory.