Hard case Barbara Stanwyck is a powerful cattle baron with forty hired guns and a spoiled rotten, sleazy kid brother. Opposing her is freelance lawman Barry Sullivan and his two brothers, the youngest of which Sullivan is trying to steer away from the family business.
The word I see most used by film critics to describe the films of writer/producer/director Samuel Fuller is "muscular". They're right and Forty Guns is no exception.
Complex and noirish, with dreamy black and white photography, hard boiled dialog and a bit of sexual innuendo thrown in, Fuller takes pulp fiction and turns it into art, squeezing two-hours of story into a lean seventy-nine minutes.
Barry Sullivan was a criminally under-used character actor. Here, he really gets to show off his acting skills in probably his best role.
The word I see most used by film critics to describe the films of writer/producer/director Samuel Fuller is "muscular". They're right and Forty Guns is no exception.
Complex and noirish, with dreamy black and white photography, hard boiled dialog and a bit of sexual innuendo thrown in, Fuller takes pulp fiction and turns it into art, squeezing two-hours of story into a lean seventy-nine minutes.
Barry Sullivan was a criminally under-used character actor. Here, he really gets to show off his acting skills in probably his best role.