Tigrero—A Film That Was Never Made

The secret of this documentary on Samuel Fuller’s unfilmed screenplay is that it’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with a double key and a trick ending.

Fuller is Howard, Jim Jarmusch is Bob Curtin, Fred C. Dobbs (unseen) is a figure of fate.

There is the footage shot by Fuller on location for his crew, there is his own description of the film’s substance, a superb anecdote. Finally there are the Karajä Indians of Brazil.

Kaurismäki’s film generates an effect somehow, an afterimage of Darryl F. Zanuck’s 20^th Century-Fox masterpiece starring Tyrone Power and Ava Gardner, with John Wayne in the title role of a man who hunts pesky jaguars for pay, they leap upon his upraised spear.