Shock Corridor Exemplifies Samuel Fuller's Impressive Boundary-Pushing Tendencies

The works of Samuel Fuller were boundary-pushing in the best possible way. They weren't shallow edgelord poppycock, Fuller's films were actually dangerous.  They dared to cover topics that were taboo (and even still are) in mainstream Hollywood, including authentically messy portrayals of racism. Fuller wasn't afraid to make audiences uncomfortable and that talent is certainly around in his 1963 feature film Shock Corridor. Fuller's script is based around an idea that, in basic outline form, sounds like it might make a decent half-hour campfire story. In the hands of Fuller, though, it becomes something more haunting that comments on the uncaring nature of humanity.

Samuel Fuller's The Crimson Kimono Is a Unique Film Noir In Many Ways

Judging solely by the poster for The Crimson Kimono, you'd be reasonable to assume this Samuel Fuller directorial effort will be using its Japanese lead character, Detective Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta), for exploitative means rather than actually exploring Kojaku as a human being. However, posters can be deceiving. Remember how that one guy with a skull tattoo on his face was plastered all over every 47 Ronin poster only for him to appear in the movie for ten seconds? Similarly, The Crimson Kimono has far more to offer than its poster suggests. Not only does it provide a far more layered portrait of a Japanese character than you'd expect in American cinema circa. 1959 but it's also just a well-made noir tale in its own right.

White Dog Is an Unflinching And Powerful Look At Racist Violent Behavior

Back in the early 1980's, Paramount Pictures financed a fully completed $7 million budgeted feature film that they proceeded to tuck on a shelf and not release. Such a bold move rarely ever occurs to major movies in Hollywood but then again, White Dog was not a typical motion picture. Hailing from writer/director Samuel Fuller, White Dog was a movie entirely focused on a dog who had been trained by a racist human being to specifically attack black people and such a premise had executives worried about reactions from all kinds of groups ranging from members of the NAACP to charters of the Klu Klux Klan. Thus, the studio behind Monster Trucks canceled its original 1982 theatrical release and the film would not see the light of day (save for a handful of TV airings) until 1991.