Only now does it occur to me... PARK ROW

Only now does it occur to me...  that PARK ROW is one of the finest American films of the 1950s.

Funded independently by cigar-puffing Hollywood maverick Sam Fuller, PARK ROW is a wild, dark, ambitious, intricate meditation on the freedom of the press and a nostalgic reverie for the bygone, moxie-filled newspapering glory days of Park Row.  Its scope is vast, even if its budget wasn't– some have even likened it to an indie-CITIZEN KANE.

I don't wish to say too much, but this movie is brutal.  Children are maimed, bombs are tossed, innocents beaten into pulps, and all over the integrity of print media.  Our intrepid hero even gets his hands on a less than 'fair and balanced' rival newspaper henchman, and clobbers his media-distorting ass against the pedestal of a statue of Benjamin Franklin!




Plus, you get to see a Blue Blazer made,

And there's even secret messages in the beer!

Anyway, as far as I can tell, it's only available via the MGM Limited Edition DVD-R print-on-demand collection, but I really can't recommend this film enough.  In an era where true journalistic integrity is the scarcest of commodities, seeing the fortitude, decency, and resourcefulness of two-fisted truth-tellers of yore (both the Park Row newshounds of the 1880s and Sam Fuller himself) lifts the spirits a little.

Film Review: WHITE DOG (1982, Sam Fuller)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 90 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Kristy McNichol, Jameson Parker (SIMON AND SIMON, PRINCE OF DARKNESS), Paul Winfield (THE TERMINATOR, STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN, THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, ORIGINAL GANGSTAS), Burl Ives, Paul Bartel cameo, cameo by Joe Dante-fav Dick Miller, music by Ennio Morricone, co-writer Curtis Hanson.
Tag-line: "When man's best friend becomes his fiercest enemy!"
Best one-liner(s): "Sour cream....love it!"

Alexander Pope's poem, 'On the Collar of a Dog': "I am his highness's dog at Kew/ Pray, tell me, sir, whose dog are you?" And indeed Sam Fuller's film, WHITE DOG, leaves you thinking that Sam believes there are many members of the human species more deserving of collars than dogs, and many forms of bigotry more vicious than the amorality of the animal world. I must say that I'm inclined to agree with him.

Long suppressed and unavailable to the masses, I'm happy to say that WHITE DOG lives up to the hype. At once wild entertainment and a serious statement on race, its sometimes restrained, sometimes over-the-top acting modes and masterfully emotive Ennio Morricone soundtrack make it feel very much like the work of crazed (but skilled) Europeans.

Much of its success is due to the likability of it's characters- the waifish Kristy McNichol (the same year as THE PIRATE MOVIE!) exudes cheerful grace; Jameson Parker (sans moustache) is a fleeting friend/love interest; Burl Ives is a hilarious, R2-D2 hating (he flings syringes at what he sees as the death of animal stunts!), jolly, roly-poly old man ("Sour cream... Love it!");

Paul Winfield is the determined, black Ahab out to cure the elusive 'white dog;'

and we even get cameos from the likes of Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, and a cigar-chomping Mr. Fuller himself! The script, loosely adapted by Fuller and Curtis Hanson (THE RIVER WILD, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) is at times ridiculous (in the best way possible), but always packs a punch. This tale of trying to "cure" racism (instead of ignoring it or trying to destroy it) is a touch nihilistic, but it is so well-structured and directed that it never rings false. Fuller takes you into the dog's world in a much more visceral way than say, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (and I'm not talking merely about attack sequences), and the result is a primeval melancholy that's quite unlike anything I've ever seen. Five stars, and one of Fuller's best.


-Sean Gill

Film review: PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953, Sam Fuller)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 80 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Richard Widmark (KISS OF DEATH, THE ALAMO, NIGHT AND THE CITY, PANIC IN THE STREETS), Jean Peters (VIVA ZAPATA!, NIAGARA), Thelma Ritter (THE MISFITS, REAR WINDOW, ALL ABOUT EVE), and Richard Kiley (NIGHT GALLERY, PATCH ADAMS?!). Directed by pulp cinema legend Sam Fuller (SHOCK CORRIDOR, WHITE DOG, THE NAKED KISS, THE STEEL HELMET, VERBOTEN).

Tag-lines: " How the law took a chance on a B-girl... and won!"
Best one-liner(s): "You'll always be a two-bit cannon. And when they pick you up in the gutter dead, you're hand'll be in a drunk's pocket." AND "I have to go on making a living so I can die. But even a fancy funeral ain't worth waiting for if I've gotta do business with crumbs like you."

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is almost handled like a science experiment. Sam Fuller delights in putting large doses of humanity's lower depths and a splash of Red paranoia into that Petri dish that is Manhattan, then sloshing it around and watching the ensuing verbal barbs, squealing, slapping, unexpected romance, and outright mayhem. However, like another great scientist of cinema, Werner Herzog, Mr. Fuller was also a connoisseur and devotee of humankind's idiosyncrasies. The love he puts into his characters makes them real: Skip's East River shack and unconventional method of keeping his beers cold, the tiny gestures and costume elements, Lightning Louie's use of chopsticks- its the kind of swift attention to detail that perfectly illustrates Fuller's background as a newspaperman. Fuller also had a background as a military man, which can be seen in how he treats film as a battleground of clashing characters, emotions, dialogue, and action (a sentiment which he famously intoned in PIERROT LE FOU). And Fuller also had a background as a sonofabitch, which can clearly be seen in scenes like when Richard Widmark finds Jean Peters in his shack, punches her out, revives her by pouring cold beer on her head, and then makes out with her thirty seconds later.


Fuller was another in the pantheon (that included Hawks, Huston, Peckinpah, and others) who knew how to weave a fantastic fast-paced narrative, how to build an ensemble of well-developed characters, when to use violence and when not to, when to cave in on studio demands and when not to, and overall, plainly, how to DIRECT.

-Sean Gill