The filmmaking talents of
auteur filmmaker Samuel Fuller will
be showcased by the Criterion Collection on Dec. 11 with a new 4K restoration
of his 1957 Western, Forty Guns. Both DVD and Blu-ray editions will be
available.
Tombstone, Arizona is the
backdrop for this out-of-the-ordinary Western starring Barbara Stanwyck as Jessica
Drummond, the local power — actually her, that is, and her 40 hired guns. Her brother, Brockie, played by John
Ericson, is a bully and a general all around sleeze who likes the cowardly
approach to violence.
Into this hornet’s nest
ride the Bonell Brother, Griff (Barry Sullivan), Wes (Gene Barry) and Chico
(Robert Dix), who are Federal deputies armed with an arrest warrant for one of
the local lawmen, who doubles as a stagecoach robber. Before you can say “hand’s up,” Griff
encounters Brockie and tosses his weasel butt in jail for shooting Marshal
Chisum (played by Hank Worden), who is half-blind. It doesn’t take too much imagination as what
is going to happen next. When your
little brother is in jail and you have 40 gunslingers at your disposal, you don
your best black Western outfit, saddle up and ride to town.
Meanwhile, Wes falls in
love with a local gunsmith by the name of Louvenia (Eve Brent) and makes plans
for a wedding … a tragic wedding to be sure.
Forty Guns brings together a top-notch cast, a script that
doesn’t follow “the code,” amazing visuals (cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc —
Oscar-winner for The Towering Inferno and also nominated for his work on Hush...Hush,
Sweet Charlotte) and at least two scenes that stick with you long after
the viewing — the wedding sequence and a magnificently-staged shootout between
Griff and Brockie that is nothing short of stunning … one of those OMG screen
moments!
Bonus goodies included
with Forty
Guns include Fuller’s daughter, Samantha Fuller’s 2013 feature-length
documentary, A Fuller Life, and two newly-prepared video sessions — the
first featuring Fuller’s wife and daughter, Christa Lang-Fuller and Samantha,
and the second with author and film critic Imogen Sara Smith (“In Lonely
Places: Film Noir Beyond the City”).
Also on the December
restoration calendar from the Criterion Collection are director Euzhan Palcy’s
1989 film adaptation of the André Brink novel, A Dry White Season (new
4K restoration, Dec. 11), an updated presentation of Ingmar Bergman’s Sawdust
and Tinsel (Dec. 18, first issued by Criterion in 2003 — new 2K
restoration) and iconic French filmmaker Julien Duvivier’s first post-war film
venture, Panique (new 2K restoration, also Dec. 18).
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