Shark!
With Burt Reynolds, Barry Sullivan, Arthur Kennedy.
US, 1969, 35mm, color, 92 min.
Print source: Museum of Modern Art
Although Fuller ambitiously intended to direct his story of a mercenary gunrunner turned treasure hunter as a tribute to Greed, the production itself sadly became a dark cautionary tale, as dogged and seemingly jinxed as von Stroheim’s mangled 1925 masterpiece. Indeed, Shark! occupies a parenthetical place in the Fuller canon as a film that was ignominiously taken from its director and shoddily recut by its producers. Adding insult to injury, Fuller was also thwarted in his subsequent attempts to remove his name from the picture. In truth, the film’s production was troubled from the start, with Fuller reportedly clashing with his lead actor, the young Burt Reynolds, and having to fight off interference from his impatient and meddling producers. And then a stunt man was killed on camera by an improperly sedated shark, a fact that the producers sought to exploit, much to Fuller’s disgust. Despite its unsavory production history and deep flaws, Shark! has become something of a cult film, important for any Fuller retrospective, full as it is with classic Fuller imagery and ideas, and featuring strong performances by Reynolds and Buñuel favorite Silvia Pinal.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Pickup on South Street
The Crimson Kimono
The Naked Kiss
Underworld U.S.A.
The Baron of Arizona
Merrill's Marauders
House of Bamboo
Fixed Bayonets!
Forty Guns
Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
A Fuller Life
Run of the Arrow
Street of No Return
The Steel Helmet
The Big Red One
Shock Corridor
Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made
