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Saturday, Aug 20, 2022
7 PM (99 mins)
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BAMPFA
SUBJECTS
Underworld U.S.A.
Archival 35mm Print
Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Paul Dubov,
As a teenager, petty thief Tolly Devlin sees his father savagely beaten to death in a dark alley, and payback becomes his life’s pursuit. In Fuller’s purest film noir, starkly photographed by Hal Mohr in deep shadows with occasionally ricocheting cameras, Cliff Robertson’s Devlin is a brutishly single-minded protagonist, a far cry from the wily but magnetic pickpocket of Pickup on South Street or the hooker with a heart of gold in The Naked Kiss. Doomed by his revenge motive, he is an amoral hood through and through: his substitute mother cleans his wounds and tries to keep him straight, but he still eyes the combination lock on her safe. When a would-be lover declares her desire for his children, he responds with insults and derisive laughter. In Fuller’s noir universe, there’s no redemption for the pathologically obsessed.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Samuel Fuller
Cinematographer
- Hal Mohr
Print Info
- B&W
- 35mm
- 99 mins
Source
- Academy Film Archive
Permission
- Swank Motion Pictures
CINEFILES
CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.
View Underworld U.S.A. documents
Samuel Fuller (program note), Institut Valencià de l'Audiovisual i de Cinematografia Ricardo Muñoz Suay, Quim Casas, 2010
Underworld USA (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, James Quandt, 1999
Pulp fictions: the films of Samuel Fuller (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, James Quandt, 1998
Un Americain en Normandie: le jour j de Samuel Fuller (press kit), GMT Productions, Noël Simsolo, 1994
Revivals in focus -- excerpt (review), Village Voice, Andrew Sarris, 1987
The American cinema (program note), Blake Lucas, 1970
Excerpt from an interview with Sam Fuller (before he shot The naked kiss) (program note), 1969
Underworld, U.S.A. (review), Monthly Film Bulletin, P.J.D., 1962
Underworld, U.S.A. (review), Variety, Tube., 1961
Underworld, U.S.A. (review), Filmfacts, 1961
Displaying 10 of 17 publicly available documents.