His films have been called raw, outrageous, sensational, and daring. In four decades of directing, Samuel Fuller created a radically idiosyncratic oeuvre, examining American history and mythmaking in westerns, film noirs, and war epics. This selection of the B-movie visionary’s purposefully rough-hewn, elegantly stripped-down, and often controversial films—including the delirious insane-asylum thriller SHOCK CORRIDOR and full-throttle pulp noir THE NAKED KISS—display the stylistic audaciousness, gutter wit, and subversive force that made him one of twentieth-century cinema’s most legendary mavericks.
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1949 • United States
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...
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1950 • United States
In one of his own favorite roles, Vincent Price portrays legendary swindler James Addison Reavis, who in 1880 concocted an elaborate and dangerous hoax to name himself the "Baron" of Arizona, and therefore inherit all the land in the state. Samuel...
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1951 • United States
The Steel Helmet marked Samuel Fuller's official arrival as a mighty cinematic force. Despite its relatively low budget, this portrait of Korean War soldiers dealing with moral and racial identity crises remains one of the director's most grippi...
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1963 • United States
Starring Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans
In SHOCK CORRIDOR, the great American writer-director-producer Samuel Fuller masterfully charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and madness. Seeking a Pulitzer Prize, reporter Johnny Barrett (Pe...
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1964 • United States
Starring Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante
The setup is pure pulp: A former prostitute (a crackerjack Constance Towers) relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But in the strange, hallucinat...
Directed by Mika Kaurismäki • 1994 • Brazil, Finland
Starring Jim Jarmusch, Samuel Fuller
In 1954, Hollywood maverick Samuel Fuller traveled to the Brazilian jungle to scout locations for an adventure film called TIGRERO that was to star John Wayne, Ava Gardner, and Tyrone Power—a project that w...
