Samuel Fuller

Directing

Samuel Fuller

Born 1912-08-12 · Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American screenwriter, novelist and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes. He was born Samuel Michael Fuller in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Rabinovitch, a Jewish immigrant  from Russia, and Rebecca Baum, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. After immigrating to America, the family's surname was changed from Rabinovitch to "Fuller" possibly by inspiration of a Doctor who arrived in America on the Mayflower.  At the age of 12, he began working in journalism  as a newspaper  copyboy. He became a crime reporter  in New York City at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic. He broke the story of Jeanne Eagels' death.  He wrote pulp novels and screenplays  from the mid-1930s onwards. Fuller also became a screenplay  ghostwriter  but would never tell interviewers which screenplays that he ghost-wrote explaining "that's what a ghost writer is for". During World War II, Fuller joined the United States Army infantry. He was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and saw heavy fighting. He was involved in landings in Africa, Sicily, and Normandy  and also saw action in Belgium and Czechoslovakia. In 1945 he was present at the liberation of the German concentration camp at Falkenau  and shot 16 mm footage which was used later in the documentary Falkenau: The Impossible. For his service, he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart.  Fuller used his wartime experiences as material in his films, especially in The Big Red One (1980), a nickname of the 1st Infantry Division. After his controversial film "White Dog" was shelved by Paramount pictures, Fuller moved to France, and never directed another American film. Fuller eventually returned to America. He died of natural causes in his California home. In November 1997, the Directors Guild held a three hour memorial in his honor, hosted by Curtis Hanson, his long time friend and co-writer on White Dog. He was survived by his wife Christa and daughter Samantha.

Acting credits

1941 poster
5.8

In the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, panic grips California, where a military officer leads a mob chasing a Japanese sub.

1941

1979

No artwork available
NR

Scottish Television's film on the 40th Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1986, starring Robbie Coltrane (a former EIFF chauffeur) and featuring interviews with Bill Forsyth, Samuel Fuller and Barry Norman, among many others.

Hooray For Holyrood

1986

Pierrot le Fou poster
7.3

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.

Pierrot le Fou

1965

The American Friend poster
7.1

Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.

The American Friend

1977

White Dog poster
6.6

Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.

White Dog

1982

The Big Red One poster
6.7

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.

The Big Red One

1980

A Return to Salem's Lot poster
5.9

Anthropologist Joe Weber takes his son on a trip to the New England town of Salem's Lot, unaware of its vampire population. When the inhabitants reveal their secret, they seek Weber to write a bible for them.

A Return to Salem's Lot

1987

La Vie de Bohème poster
7.5

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise.

La Vie de Bohème

1992

The End of Violence poster
5.4

In Hollywood, the lives of a successful film producer, his wife, a police detective and a surveillance agent intersect after a botched abduction.

The End of Violence

1997

Scene Missing poster
6.3

The unfinished documentary about the making of Dennis Hopper's mostly unseen feature film The Last Movie (1971).

Scene Missing

2012

Filmmakers in Action poster
7.2

What is the state of cinema and what being a filmmaker means? What are the measures taken to protect authors' copyright? What is their legal status in different countries? (Sequel to “Filmmakers vs. Tycoons.”)

Filmmakers in Action

2006

House of Bamboo poster
6.2

Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

House of Bamboo

1955

The Last Movie poster
5.7

After a film production wraps in Peru, an American wrangler decides to stay behind, witnessing how filmmaking affects the locals.

The Last Movie

1971

Sam Fuller & the Big Red One poster
7.0

A documentary shot during the production of Samuel Fuller's film The Big Red One.

Sam Fuller & the Big Red One

1984

Hammett poster
6.2

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

Hammett

1982

A Fuller Life poster
6.6

Friends and admirers of iconoclastic film director Sam Fuller read from his memoirs in this unconventional documentary directed by Fuller's only child, Samantha.

A Fuller Life

2013

Somebody to Love poster
5.2

Mercedes is a taxi dancer who wants to be an actress. She's involved with the married Harry, who considers himself a respected actor. Ernesto is in love with Mercedes, but he doesn't dance or have money.

Somebody to Love

1994

The Bleeding Star poster
NR

An Englishman arrives in a remote French town near the coast to collect his broken-down car. What he sees there will change his life forever.

The Bleeding Star

1987

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller poster
5.8

Samuel Fuller discusses his career as a filmmaker, illustrated by plenty of clips.

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

2002

The State of Things poster
6.4

On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956). The producer is nowhere to be found and director Munro attempts to find him in hopes of being able to finish the film.

The State of Things

1982

Slapstick of Another Kind poster
3.1

A rich, beautiful couple give birth to deformed alien twins who, when their heads are together, are the smartest kids on the planet.

Slapstick of Another Kind

1982

Thieves After Dark poster
5.3

A crime story set in Paris about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they are pursued for a murder they never committed.

Thieves After Dark

1984

The Big Red One: The Reconstruction poster
8.4

A re-working, re-editing, and restructuring of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One bringing it closer as originally envisioned by the late filmmaker. It includes forty-seven additional minutes which was not utilized in the film's original release. Supervised by Richard Schickel, Peter Bogdanovich, and editor Bryan McKenzie.

The Big Red One: The Reconstruction

2005

The Young Nurses poster
4.0

Sexy young nurses administer a special kind of therapy on their daily rounds as they battle a drug ring operating outside the hospital.

The Young Nurses

1973

Behind the camera

The Steel Helmet poster
7.0

A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.

The Steel Helmet

1951

The Steel Helmet poster
7.0

A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.

The Steel Helmet

1951

The Steel Helmet poster
7.0

A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.

The Steel Helmet

1951

Targets poster
7.1

An aging horror-movie icon's fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles.

Targets

1968

White Dog poster
6.6

Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.

White Dog

1982

White Dog poster
6.6

Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.

White Dog

1982

The Baron of Arizona poster
6.7

The U.S. government recognizes land grants made when the West was under Spanish rule. This inspires James Reavis to forge a chain of historical evidence that makes a foundling girl the Baroness of Arizona. Reavis marries the girl and presses his claim to the entire Arizona territory.

The Baron of Arizona

1950

The Baron of Arizona poster
6.7

The U.S. government recognizes land grants made when the West was under Spanish rule. This inspires James Reavis to forge a chain of historical evidence that makes a foundling girl the Baroness of Arizona. Reavis marries the girl and presses his claim to the entire Arizona territory.

The Baron of Arizona

1950

Pickup on South Street poster
7.4

In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.

Pickup on South Street

1953

Pickup on South Street poster
7.4

In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.

Pickup on South Street

1953

The Crimson Kimono poster
6.6

Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.

The Crimson Kimono

1959

The Crimson Kimono poster
6.6

Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.

The Crimson Kimono

1959

The Crimson Kimono poster
6.6

Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.

The Crimson Kimono

1959

The Big Red One poster
6.7

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.

The Big Red One

1980

The Big Red One poster
6.7

A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.

The Big Red One

1980

House of Bamboo poster
6.2

Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

House of Bamboo

1955

Verboten! poster
6.6

A young American serviceman stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his future after falling in love with a German woman.

Verboten!

1959

Verboten! poster
6.6

A young American serviceman stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his future after falling in love with a German woman.

Verboten!

1959

The Naked Kiss poster
7.0

A former prostitute works to create a new life for herself in a small town, but a shocking discovery could threaten everything.

The Naked Kiss

1964

The Naked Kiss poster
7.0

A former prostitute works to create a new life for herself in a small town, but a shocking discovery could threaten everything.

The Naked Kiss

1964

The Naked Kiss poster
7.0

A former prostitute works to create a new life for herself in a small town, but a shocking discovery could threaten everything.

The Naked Kiss

1964

Girls in Prison poster
4.6

In 1952 Hollywood, aspiring singer/songwriter Aggie O'Hanlon is sentenced to life after being found guilty of a murder she didn't commit. While incarcerated, Aggie befriends other inmates also serving life. However, Aggie soon finds herself the target of various 'hit girls'. Can Aggie survive life behind bars long enough to prove her innocence?

Girls in Prison

1994

Forty Guns poster
6.6

An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.

Forty Guns

1957

Forty Guns poster
6.6

An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.

Forty Guns

1957