Slideshow
FORTY GUNS
U.S., 1957
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, John Ericson
Approx. 80 min. DCP.
Gene Barry leads an Earp-like brother act to clean up Dodge — only trouble is, he’s fallen for outlaw leader Barbara Stanwyck. Endless tracking shots in b&w Scope highlight “probably the most rancidly vicious Western of the 1950s” (Brian Garfield). “So rich in invention and bursting with daring conceptions that it reminds one of the extravagences of Abel Gance and Stroheim.” – Jean-Luc Godard
Reviews
“Serves up doomed love and sudden death with dramatic richness.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Punchy combination of crazy vulgarities and keen psychological insights.”
– Dan Callahan, Slant Magazine
“Fuller’s most entertaining and audacious assault on classical and generic conventions up to this point in his career—loopy, jarring, and, more than once, jaw-dropping.”
– Lisa Dombrowski, Criterion