The Films of Samuel Fuller. Lisa Dombrowski

      CHAPTER TWO

      The Fox Years, 1951–1956

      Fuller signed with Twentieth Century–Fox at the beginning of a tumultuous decade for the motion picture industry, a period that saw the end of the studio system. Production cutbacks that began in the early 1940s accelerated in the 1950s as the studios faced declining audience attendance, rising costs, and plunging profits. In an effort to counter the lure of television, radio, and other suburban entertainment options, the major studios shifted away from producing a balanced slate of A and B pictures designed for the whole family and looked to new strategies to differentiate their product. Dramatically reducing low-budget production, the majors concentrated their resources on spectacular, big-budget films that featured color, stereophonic sound, and widescreen processes, creating an experience unable to be replicated at home. At the same time, a piecemeal decline in industry regulation and censorship beginning in the late 1940s and culminating in the 1956 revision of the Production Code enabled more filmmakers to tackle adult-oriented fare that flaunted sex, violence, and social taboos to a degree not seen in mainstream domestic filmmaking since the early 1930s. Fuller’s contract with Fox enabled him to participate in many of these trends, as he had secured a job with a major studio that, at least temporarily, valued his penchant for visual experimentation and edgy material.

      While Fuller’s decision to sign with Twentieth Century–Fox seems largely to have been based on his fondness for Darryl Zanuck, the studio’s longtime production head, Fuller’s background as an action director complemented the needs of the studio. From their first meeting, Zanuck and Fuller established a close relationship that flourished through the 1950s. Fuller expressed great admiration for Zanuck’s straightforwardness and commitment to strong storytelling, and Zanuck reveled in Fuller’s can-do spirit and real-life adventures. Both were equally fond of cigars and explosives, once apparently firing off a nine-millimeter German Luger in an underground screening room together.¹ Although Zanuck’s interest in more “realistic” material remained firm, when Fuller arrived at Fox in the early 1950s the production head was steering the studio toward big-picture entertainment rooted in action and sex rather than the social problem films it produced at the end of the previous decade.² As a director who had made a name for himself in action films but who still maintained an obsession with history and journalism, Fuller was a fine fit. All of the films he directed while under contract at Fox—Fixed Bayonets, Pickup on South Street, Hell and High Water, and House of Bamboo—were action-oriented war, crime, or adventure stories rooted in contemporary political and social conflicts.

      Twentieth Century–Fox’s production chief, Darryl Zanuck (left), at a birthday party for Samuel Fuller (right) during the shooting of Hell and High Water. Zanuck and Fuller had a warm relationship and worked closely while Fuller was under contract at Fox. Chrisam Films, Inc.

      The classical norms embraced by the major studios as a means of ensuring clarity, coherence, and quality had a decided impact on Fuller’s work. Now he was operating within a system of long-standing production practices fully ingrained in workers at every level of authority, a system that directly and indirectly influenced the choices available to filmmakers. During this period, the narratives of Fuller’s films adhere to classical, generic, and cultural conventions to a degree never again seen in his career, and his visual style becomes more refined and polished. Fuller’s artistic instincts are not completely buried, however. With the proper material and the support of the studio they could come very much to the fore or, alternately, they could express themselves in a more subtle fashion, achieving his favored effects while still reflecting classical norms. The proof of Fox’s influence on the expression of Fuller’s aesthetic is most clearly seen through comparison with his one independent project during this period, Park Row. If the Fox films are Fuller restrained, Park Row is Fuller unbound; the difference is palpable.

The Trade-offs of Studio Filmmaking

      As a director at a major studio, Fuller occupied a role defined by specific expectations, and as a director at Twentieth Century–Fox, his role was actively overseen by Darryl Zanuck. Under the modes of production utilized by the majors during the studio era, a director’s primary responsibility was the coordination of actors and crew during the shoot itself.³ The producer and studio managers typically left directors alone on set, relying on daily production reports, script supervisor notes, and rushes to confirm if a director was staying on time, on budget, and maintaining narrative and visual quality. The producer and department heads sought ideas and approval from the director during preproduction (script development, casting, set construction, wardrobe creation) and postproduction (editing, scoring), but at these stages the producer’s opinion trumped that of the director. At Fox, Zanuck was the top production manager, and he exerted overt control during pre- and postproduction. Zanuck started his Hollywood career as a screenwriter at Warner Bros. during the 1920s, and as production chief he closely supervised story development.⁴ He regularly selected literary properties and reviewed synopses, treatments, and scripts. When meeting the screenwriter and production team during story conferences, he dictated the direction of the conversation, offering general story ideas and line-by-line script notes. While Zanuck respected directors’ autonomy on set as long as they kept to the schedule and provided acceptable footage, he re-exerted control in postproduction, watching rushes, making comments to the director and editor, selecting takes to use, and ordering reshoots. A range of entrenched institutional systems and practices thus shaped Fuller’s degree of artistic control during this period, and Zanuck’s influence was particularly acute.

      Although Fuller lost some measure of control over his films while at Twentieth Century–Fox, his contract provided him with an opportunity to direct higher-profile pictures while still retaining the ability to work independently. The seven-year option contract, signed in April 1951, stated that Fuller would render his services to Fox for twenty-six weeks as a writer and director on an initial film and, at the pleasure of the studio, also act as a producer for the film. Subsequent contract extensions also bound Fuller to Fox for half of every year, leaving the director free to pursue one outside motion picture or television show the remaining twenty-six weeks of the extension. When Fuller notified Fox of a starting date on an outside project, the studio had the right to preempt the project by dictating its own starting date on a new film, but Fuller then had to have twenty-six weeks later in the contract in which to complete his outside work. He had the freedom to write his own screenplays and to reject assignments at will. Fuller also was not obligated to submit to Fox any literary material, and he could offer stories and screenplays to other studios before showing them to Fox; in addition, his contract specified that only he could direct his screenplays, subject to his availability.⁵ Fuller’s deal thus protected a number of freedoms he held dear: the pursuit of projects he cared about, regardless of studio interest; the choice of where to develop his original stories and screenplays; the direction of his own written work; and the chance to produce his own films (if Fox so desired—it never did).

      Fuller’s tenure at Fox introduced him to both the benefits and the restrictions of major-studio filmmaking. For the first time, his films employed stars, color, widescreen, and location shooting; he had the luxury to rehearse more, to shoot for a longer period, and to experiment with extended tracking shots and cranes. He was also assured that his films would receive wide, first-run distribution in top houses, supported by a national publicity campaign. On the other hand, Fuller no longer produced his own films, nor did he have profit participation or final cut. Most of his original screenplays were rejected by the studio, and except for Fixed Bayonets, he did not originate the stories for any of his Fox films. Finally, although he did write one script and a scenario for other studios while under contract, Park Row was the only independent film