Eureka Entertainment is to release FULLER AT FOX, FIVE FILMS 1951-1957 (FIXED BAYONETS!, PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET, HELL AND HIGH WATER, HOUSE OF BAMBOO, FORTY GUNS), a collection of essential films from one of the greats of American cinema operating at his creative peak, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series on Blu-ray. Available in a Limited-Edition (2000 copies, individually numbered) 5-disc hardbound boxed set featuring a 100-page perfect bound Collector’s Book on 28 October 2019.
A towering figure of American cinema, Samuel Fuller was a master of the B-movie, a pulp maestro whose iconoclastic vision elevated the American genre film to new heights. After the major success of The Steel Helmet, Fuller was put under contract by Twentieth Century Fox after being impressed by Darryl F. Zanuck’s direct sales pitch (other studios offered Fuller money and tax shelters; Zanuck simply told him, “We make better movies.”).
Over a six-year period, Fuller would produce some of the best work of his career, (and therefore, some of the best films in American cinema), an uncompromising series of masterpieces spanning multiple genres (the Western, the War film, film noir, the Crime-Thriller) that would establish the director as a true auteur, whose influence continues to be felt today.
Collected here are five films from this fruitful period, all presented from stunning restorations. The impossibly tense Korean-War drama Fixed Bayonets! (1951); the outrageous and confrontational spy-thriller Pickup on South Street (1953); the Cold War submarine-actioner Hell and High Water (1954); the lushly photographed, cold-as-ice film noir House of Bamboo (1955); and the audacious Western with a feminist twist, Forty Guns (1957). Also included is Samantha Fuller’s 2013 documentary, A Fuller Life, featuring friends and admirers of the great director reading extracts from his memoirs.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- LIMITED EDITION BOX SET [2000 COPIES, INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED]
- All five films presented on Blu-ray in 1080p, with Fixed Bayonets!, Pickup on South Street, Hell and High Water, and Forty Guns presented from Fox’s stunning 4K restorations, with House of Bamboo presented from a 2K restoration
- Original, uncompressed, monaural soundtracks for all films
- Optional English SDH available for all films
- FIXED BAYONETS! – audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin
- PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET – Interview with critic, filmmaker and programmer Kent Jones [32 mins]
- PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET – Interview with critic François Guérif [24 mins]
- PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET – “Cinema Cinemas” French TV interview with Samuel Fuller [12 mins]
- HELL AND HIGH WATER – Brand new audio commentary by author Scott Harrison
- HELL AND HIGH WATER – A documentary on lead actor Richard Widmark [45 mins]
- HOUSE OF BAMBOO – Audio commentary with Film Historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman
- HOUSE OF BAMBOO – Audio commentary with Film historians Alain Silver and James Ursini
- HOUSE OF BAMBOO – a brand new video essay by David Cairns looking at Samuel Fuller’s films produced for Twentieth Century Fox.
- FORTY GUNS – Audio interview with Samuel Fuller from 1969 at the National Film Theatre in London [80 mins]
- FORTY GUNS – Interview with film critic Jean-Louis Leutrat [17 mins]
- FORTY GUNS – A Fuller Life [80 mins], a feature-length documentary directed by Samantha Fuller
- Original theatrical trailers for all five films
- PLUS: A 100-PAGE PERFECT BOUND COLLECTOR’S BOOK featuring essays by Richard Combs, Murielle Joudet, Philip Kemp, Glenn Kenny, and Amy Simmons; excerpts from Fuller’s autobiography A Third Face; and rare archival imagery
- SPECIAL NOTE – Although previously released by Masters of Cinema – the FORTY GUNS disc is newly authored from Fox’s 4K RESTORATION.
