A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking
Page 59
i. Anslinger was head of a federal crime commission at that time in Washington, in charge of a number of criminal investigations across the country.
2. Paradise Lost, Book I, by John Milton (16o8-74).
CHAPTER 40: LOVE YOUR COUNTRY DESPITE THE ULCERS
t. Born in Russia, Lourie had a big career in France before the war designing sets and costumes for ballet companies. He had worked on Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) as well as Max OphUls's Sans Lendemain (1939). Eugene came to America in 1941 and was art director on scores of pictures, among them Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (1952).
CHAPTER 41: WANT TO BE A LINDY?
i. I shot those home movies myself with my 16-mm Bell & Howell.
CHAPTER 42: TWO TO TANGO
1. Darryl had produced his final picture, The Longest Day, in 1962.
2. Written in 411 B.C., the play is a satire on war, in which women strike for peace by practicing celibacy. Aristophanes (448-385 B.C.), an Athenian playwright, is considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in literary history.
CHAPTER 46: TURMOIL AND WASTE
i. Riata means "lariat" in Spanish.
2. Fearless Vampire Killers was released in the States with the subtitle Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck.
CHAPTER 47: MAKING IT ALL WORTHWHILE
i. Pirandello wrote, "Life is full of infinite absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true."
2. Der Amerikanische Freund is a thriller about a picture framer in Hamburg, Zimmermann, played by Bruno Ganz, who is diagnosed as having leukemia. Ripley, an American art dealer dealing in forgeries, played by Dennis Hopper, uses this fact to recruit Zimmermann as a hit man.
3. Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, ended with President Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
CHAPTER 48: THE UNMAKING OF A KLANSMAN
t. Terence had made his reputation with the early James Bond films Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), and Thunderball (1965).
CHAPTER 49: LET THEM JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES
1. Jack was Francis Ford Coppola's brother-in-law by way of his marriage to Francis's sister, Talia Shire.
2. From a quote in U.S. News &World Report.
CHAPTER 50: FOUR-LEGGED TIME BOMB
i. A few of the titles registered with the Writer's Guild were: Powderkeg (love story); Charge at San Juan Hill (script, war melodrama); Yank in West Berlin (three love stories, today); Hold for Release (newspaper comedy); The Blue Pagoda of Fuji (ex-GI returns to Japan); Corporal Tex (fantasy of GI in old days of the West); The Lady Who Raised Cain (comedy); The Bell (Sicilian family story); Wise Is the Child (father's search for POW son); Island of the True Cross (Mato Grosso suspense adventure); The Jumping River (Young Lee licks Mississippi River as engineer); War Is Hell (story of General Sherman); Pickup in Paris (U.S. students in Paris); Once Upon a Prayer (fantasy, child picks parents in heaven); Sarung Banggi (love story, one night in Philippines); Quake at Noon (love, suspense story in Utah); Old Glory (three stories about the same flag); Ben Franklin, the Tex Rickard Story (sports in the twenties); The Lusty Years (script, romantic melodrama); High and Dry (chase romance in Venice); Dutch Treat (foreign correspondent yarn); and Quincannon (Confederate raiders in Mexican border town).
z. Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn (1850-1904) was from an Irish-Greek family, raised in Ireland, England, and France. He immigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen, working as a journalist. To supplement his income, Hearn translated exotic, unusual stories.
3. The stained-glass window we created for that set had St. Francis surrounded by loving animals. I liked the prop so much that I saved it and had it installed permanently in the Shack.
CHAPTER 51: A THIRD FACE
1. The Song of Dead Children, based on the Gustav Mahler composition.
CHAPTER 53: HALF FULL, NOT HALF EMPTY
1. This nonprofit, nonpolitical group, based in Paris, is called Medicins du Monde, Doctors of the World, helping out from war-torn Afghanistan to drought-stricken Africa.
2. Chaim Soutine was a Russian-born French expressionist painter (1894-1943), born near Minsk, Belarus. He immigrated to Paris in 1913 and soon developed his highly personal vision and technique. Soutine sacrificed careful composition and good drawing to feverish intensity, employing thick pigment in vivid, often deliberately ugly, colors. His works include pitiless psychological portraits of bakers, valets, and choirboys, still lifes of sides of meat in various stages of putrefaction, and anguished landscapes with scudding clouds and bending trees. He often reworked or destroyed his earlier paintings, and produced little new work after 1930.
CHAPTER 54: SONS AND SONSOFBITCHES
i. Smirnov confessed his family had nothing to do with the vodka we were drinking.
CHAPTER 55: BEING SERIOUS WITHOUT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY
i. The first measure enacted by Congress restricting immigration was a law in 1862 forbidding American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants to the United States; twenty years later, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which excluded Chinese immigrants.
2. Inside the jacket cover, there are some little drawings he doodled for me, along with the following inscription: "December 1946. To Sammy, I agree that the outlook is emphatically DARK, so why not put our heads together and try this gimmick: the lighted cellar, the white nose, the blazing sound stage, the glaring exit, the beige dawn, the bright future, the illuminating truss ... David."
3. Other French films from Goodis novels include Francis Girod's Descente aux Enfers (1986), from Descent into Hell; Gilles Behat's Rue Barbare (1984), from Epaves; JeanJacques Beineix's La Lune Dans le Caniveau (1983), from The Moon in the Gutter; Rene Clement's La Course du Lievre ii Travers les Champs (1972), from Black Friday; and Henri Verneuil's Le Casse (1972), from The Burglar.
CHAPTER 57: METAMORPHOSIS OF A MELODY
i. Denis Diderot (1713-84) was a French encyclopedist and philosopher; he also wrote novels, essays, plays, and art and literary criticism.
2. From Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete (1946) through Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire (1987), Alekan had shot over sixty features for some of the world's top directors.
3. His birth name was Joseph Ben Matthias, born in Jerusalem in A.D. 37 of both royal and priestly lineage. Learned and worldly, he was a member of the Pharisees, and also a public figure who, before the Jewish revolt against Rome, had made friends at the court of Emperor Nero. He enjoyed the imperial patronage of Vespasian, adopting the family name of Flavius. He accompanied Vespasian's son, Titus, on the Roman siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He devoted himself to writing until his death in too. Besides History of the Jewish War, his books include a twenty-volume history of the Jews (The Antiquities of the Jews), an autobiography (Life), and a refutation of anti-Semitism (AgainstApion).
CHAPTER 60: KISS ME, BABY
i. Alex was a witty, talented screenwriter with one of the best noir films of the sixties to his credit, Point Blank, directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin. Jacobs died at the all-too-early age of fifty-one.
2. This project had been a labor of love of French journalist Jean-Pierre Catherine and American producer Michael Seiler.
3. Author of Blue Dahlia, Ellroy also wrote L.A. Confidential, which Curtis Hanson adapted for his 1997 movie.
The Works of Samuel Fuller
SAMUEL FULLER: THE DIRECTOR
I Shot Jesse James (1949)
The Baron of Arizona (195o)
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Fixed Bayonets (1951)
Park Row (1952)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Hell and High Water (1954)
House of Bamboo (1955)
Run of the Arrow (1957)
Forty Guns (1957)
China Gate (1957)
Verboten! (1958)
The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Underworld, U.S.A. (1961)
&nb
sp; Merrill's Marauders (1962)
The Dick Powell Show,
"330 Independence S.W." (1962) (TV)
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Shark! (1970)
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972)
The Big Red One (1980)
White Dog (1982)
Thieves After Dark (1983)
Street of No Return (1989)
SAMUEL FULLER: THE ACTOR
Pierrot le Fou (1965), as Himself
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Brigitte et Brigitte (1966), as Himself Directed by Luc Moullet
The Last Movie (1971), as Director Directed by Dennis Hopper
The Young Nurses (1973), as Doc Haskell Directed by Clinton Kimbrough
The American Friend (1977), as Mobster Directed by Wim Wenders
1941 (1979), as Interceptor Commander Directed by Steven Spielberg
White Dog (1982), as Charlie Felton Directed by Samuel Fuller
The State of Things (1982), as Joe Directed by Wim Wenders
Thieves After Dark (1983), as Zoltan Directed by Samuel Fuller
Hammett (1983), as Old Man Directed by Wim Wenders
Slapstick (1984), as Colonel Sharp Directed by Steven Paul
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987), as Van Meer Directed by Larry Cohen
Helsinki Napoli All Night Long (1987), as Boss Directed by Mika Kaurismaki
Falkenau, Vision of the Impossible (1988), as Himself Directed by Emil Weiss
Sons (1989), as Father Directed by Alexandre Rockwell
David Lansky (L'EnfantAmericain) (1990), as Capodagli Directed by Herve Palud (TV)
Golem, l'esprit de 1exil (1992), as Elimelech Directed by Amos Gitai
La Vie de Boheme (1992), as Gassot Directed by Aki Kaurismaki
Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made (1994), as Himself Directed by Mika Kaurismaki
An American in Normandy (1994), as Himself Directed by Jean-Louis Comolli
The Typewriter, the Rifle th the Movie Camera (1996), as Himself Directed by Adam Simon
Somebody to Love (1996), as Sam Silverman Directed by Alexandre Rockwell
The End of Violence (1997), as Louis Bering Directed by Wim Wenders
SAMUEL FULLER: THE WRITER
Produced Screenplays
(written & directed by Mr. Fuller, unless otherwise credited)
Hats Off (1936) Directed by Boris Petroff
It Happened in Hollywood (1937) Directed by Harry Lachman
The Gangs of New York (1938) Directed by James Cruze
Adventure in Sahara (1938) Directed by D. Ross Lederman
Confirm or Deny (194i) Directed by Archie Mayo
Bowery Boy (1941) Directed by William Morgan
Power of the Press (1943) Directed by Lew Landers
Gangs of the Waterfront (1945) Directed by George Blair
Shockproof (1949) Directed by Douglas Sirk
I Shot Jesse James (1949)
The Baron of Arizona (1950)
The Tanks Are Conning (1951)
Directed by D. Ross Lederman & Lewis Seiler, from original Fuller story
The Steel Helmet (1951)
Fixed Bayonets (1951)
Scandal Sheet (1952)
From the Fuller novel The Dark Page, directed by Phil Karlson
The Command (1954)
With Russell Hughes, from the James Warner Bellah novel Rear
Guard, directed by David Butler
Park Row (1952)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Hell and High Water (1954)
House of Bamboo (1955)
Run of the Arrow (1957)
Forty Guns (1957)
China Gate (1957)
Verboten! (1958)
The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Underworld, U.S.A. (1961)
Merrill c Marauders (1962)
The Virginian (1962) (TV)
TV series, one episode written and directed by Fuller, It Tolls for Thee"
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Naked Kiss (1964)
The Iron Horse (1966) (TV)
TV series, five episodes written and directed by Fuller, "Banner with a Strange Device," "Hellcat," "High Devil," "The Man from New Chicago," and "Volcano Wagon"
The Meanest Men in the West (1967) (TV) With Ed Waters
Shark! (1970) Based on the Victor Canning novel His Bones Are Coral
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972)
The Deadly Trackers (1973)
By Luka Heller, from original Fuller script, Riata, directed by Barry Shear
The Klansman (1974)
By Millard Kaufman, from original Fuller script, book by William
Bradford Huie, directed by Terence Young
The Big Red One (1980)
Thieves After Dark (1983)
Lets Get Harry (1986)
By Charles Robert Carner, from original Fuller script, directed by Alan Smithee
Street of No Return (1989)
The Day of Reckoning (1990) (TV) With Christa Lang, from a Patricia Highsmith novel
Girls in Prison (1994) (TV) With Christa Lang, directed by John McNaughton
Published Books
Burn, Baby, Burn (1935) Published by Phoenix Press, New York
Test Tube Baby (1936) Published by William Godwin, New York
Make Up and Kiss (1938) Published by William Godwin, New York
The Dark Page (1944) Published by Duell, Sloan & Pearce, New York
Crown of India (1966) Published by Award, New York
144 Piccadilly (1971) Published by Baron, New York, and New English Library, London
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1974) Published by Pyramid, New York
The Big Red One (1980) Published by Bantam, New York
Quints World (1984)
Published by Don Mills, Ontario, and as La Grande Melee in French by Christian Bourgois, Paris
Pecos Bill and the Soho Kid (1986)
Published as Pecos Bill et le Kid Cavale in French by Les Editions Bayard, Paris
Brainquake (1993)
Published as Cerebro-Char in French by Les Belles Lettres, Paris
Unproduced Screenplays, Plays, Stories, and Treatments
Angelo
Story, Italian boy who is son of black GI left behind in Sicily, is reunited with father.
Au Revoir Madeleine
Story, French girl in Normandy during the occupation, falls in love with Nazi, invaders kill her boyfriend, and she is obsessed with finding the GI "murderer."
Balzac
Original screenplay based on the great writer's life.
Cain and Abel
Original screenplay, the birth of emotions, the first murder, volcanoes erupt, civilization is born.
Charge of San Juan Hill
Original screenplay, Teddy Roosevelt's public relations campaign to get elected president by capitalizing on his military exploits.
Custer
Story, famous "last stand" from four viewpoints of participating Indians.
The Eye of Paris
Treatment, detective tale set in City of Light.
Flowers of Evil
Original screenplay, modern version of the Greek tragedy Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, set in Paris.
Generalissimo
Story, the long march for the liberation of China, two men, Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong, together but going different directions.
The Lusty Days
Original screenplay, a mercenary in the Civil War who goes out on battlefield to collect the soldier's absentee ballots to get Lincoln elected.
Mazeppa
Story, based on life of Adah Menken, beautiful actress who was Confederate spy during Civil War.
Pearl Harbor
Treatment, life of kamikaze as he prepares for suicide run on U.S. Navy.
Pecos Bill and the Soho Kid
Original screenplay, the Kid from Soho, a tough fourteen-year-old Cockney, fi
nds himself riding with a legend, Pecos Bill.
Pigalle
Story, a hunch of GIs return to "Pig Alley" after the war.
Riata
An implacable lawman tracks a killer from Texas halfway across Mexico to avenge his son's death.
The Rifle
Novel and original screenplay, drama during Vietnamese War about an Mi rifle and the people who fire it.
Ring Around the Roses
Original two-act, fourteen-scene play, with music, depicts events at Chateau Coburg in Belgium during the winter German counteroffensive, the "Battle of the Bulge."
Ruth Snyder vs. the Chair
Treatment for drama about the first woman executed in the electric chair.
Tigrero
Original screenplay, ex-con has life-changing adventures in the jungles of Brazil.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen E. 1997. New History of World War II. New York: Viking.
Baumgartner, Lt. John W. 1946. The 16th Infantry. By Al de Poto, Sgt. William Fraccio, and Cpl. Samuel Fuller, private edition.
Duranty, Walter. 1937. One Life, One Kopeck. New York: Literary Guild of America.
Fowler, Gene. 1961. Skyline. New York: Viking Press.
Fuller, Samuel. 198o. The Big Red One. New York: Bantam.
r9ro. Life andAdventures ofA-No. z. Erie, Pa.
Mallen, Frank. 1954. Sauce for the Gander. New York: Baldwin Publishing.
1996. Marseille et les Americains, 1940-1946. Marseille: Museum of Marseille History.
Naboni, Jean, and Noel Simsolo. 1986. Il Etait une Fois ... Samuel Fuller. Paris: Cahiers du Cinema.
Rothberg, Abraham. 1962. Eyewitness History of World War II. New York: Bantam Books.
Server, Lee. 1994. Sam Fuller: Film Is a Battleground. New York: McFarland & Company.