Samuel Fuller

Forty Guns

Forty Guns

Hollywood legend Barbara Stanwyck saddled up with writer-director Samuel Fuller for the pulp maestro’s most audacious western, a boldly feminist spin on the genre that pivots effortlessly between ribald humor, visceral action, and disarming tenderness. High-riding rancher Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) commands a forty-strong posse of cowboys, ruling Cochise County, Arizona, without challenge. When U.S. Marshal Griff Bonell (Barry Sullivan) and his brothers arrive in town with a warrant for one of her hired guns, Jessica begins to fall for the lawman even as he chips away at her authority. With astonishing black-and-white CinemaScope photography, hard-boiled dialogue laced with double entendres, and a fiery performance by Stanwyck at her most imperious, Forty Guns is a virtuoso display of Fuller’s sharpshooting talents.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1957
  • 80 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 2.35:1
  • English
  • Spine #954

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with director Samuel Fuller’s widow, Christa Lang Fuller, and daughter, Samantha Fuller
  • A Fuller Life (2013), a feature-length documentary by Samantha Fuller about her father, featuring filmmakers Wim Wenders, William Friedkin, and Monte Hellman; actors Mark Hamill, James Franco, Jennifer Beals, Bill Duke, and Constance Towers; and others
  • Audio interview with Samuel Fuller at London’s National Film Theatre from 1969
  • New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
  • Stills gallery
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Lisa Dombrowski and a chapter from Fuller’s posthumously published 2002 autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

New cover by Kim Thompson

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with director Samuel Fuller’s widow, Christa Lang Fuller, and daughter, Samantha Fuller
  • A Fuller Life (2013), a feature-length documentary by Samantha Fuller about her father, featuring filmmakers Wim Wenders, William Friedkin, and Monte Hellman; actors Mark Hamill, James Franco, Jennifer Beals, Bill Duke, and Constance Towers; and others
  • Audio interview with Samuel Fuller at London’s National Film Theatre from 1969
  • New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
  • Stills gallery
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Lisa Dombrowski and a chapter from Fuller’s posthumously published 2002 autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

New cover by Kim Thompson

Forty Guns
Cast
Barbara Stanwyck
Jessica Drummond
Barry Sullivan
Griff Bonnell
Dean Jagger
Ned Logan
John Ericson
Brock Drummond
Gene Barry
Wes Bonnell
Robert Dix
Chico Bonnell
Jidge Carroll
Barney Cashman
Paul Dubov
Judge Macy
Gerald Milton
Shotgun Spanger
Ziva Rodann
Rio
Hank Worden
John Chisum
Neyle Morrow
Wiley
Chuck Roberson
Swain
Chuck Hayward
Charlie Savage
Sandra Wirth
Chico’s girlfriend
Eve Brent
Louvenia Spanger
Credits
Director
Samuel Fuller
Written by
Samuel Fuller
Produced by
Samuel Fuller
Production manager
Film editor
Gene Fowler Jr.
Art direction
John Mansbridge
Director of photography
Joseph Biroc
Music composed and conducted by
Harry Sukman
Special effects
Norman Breedlove
Optical effects
Linwood Dunn
Special photographic effects
L. B. Abbott
Music editor
Audray Granville
Set decorations
Walter M. Scott
Set decorations
Chester Bayhi
Supervising sound editor
Bert Schoenfeld
Wardrobe
Robert Olivas
Wardrobe
Ollie Hughes
Costume designer
Charles LeMaire
Costume designer
Leah Rhodes
Hairstylist
Makeup
Robert J. Schiffer
Titles by
Pacific Title
Assistant director
Sound
Jean Speak
Sound
Property master
Leigh Carson
CinemaScope lenses by
Songs sung by
Jidge Carroll

Current

Barbara Stanwyck’s Last Great Film Role
Barbara Stanwyck’s Last Great Film Role

After three decades in the industry, Hollywood icon Barbara Stanwyck delivered one of her fiercest performances in Samuel Fuller’s western Forty Guns.

Forty Guns: High-Riding Woman
Forty Guns: High-Riding Woman

Three decades into her iconic career, Barbara Stanwyck delivered her final great film performance in Samuel Fuller’s ribald and fiercely feminist twist on the western.

By Lisa Dombrowski

Don’t Fence Her In: On Women of the West
Don’t Fence Her In: On Women of the West

A string of important midcentury westerns, including Johnny Guitar and Rancho Notorious, elevated women from their traditionally marginal role in the genre to more potent and central positions.

By Imogen Sara Smith