Shark!

Caine, a gunrunner, becomes stranded in a small port on the Red Sea. While there, he meets an attractive woman, Anna, who propositions him to dive into shark-infested waters off the coast. Though she alleges the purpose of the dive is scientific research, Caine eventually realizes that the woman and her partner are actually treasure hunters, and sees an opportunity to utilize the riches from the wreck they hope to raid to compensate for the earlier loss of his cargo.

• Burt Reynolds as Caine
• Arthur Kennedy as Doc
• Barry Sullivan as Professor Dan Malair
• Silvia Pinal as Anna
• Francisco Reiguera as Joseph (credited as Francisco Reyguera)
• Enrique Lucero as Inspector Barok
• Manuel Alvarado as Latalah
• Carlos Barry as Runt

The film was based on the novel His Bones are Coral by Victor Canning. This was serialized in 1954 and published in 1955.{{Cite journal |date=January 1, 1982 |title=SHARK |journal=Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=49 |issue=576 |pages=143}} The original screenplay was written by Ken Hughes.

In July 1966 it was announced Gaumont Pictures would make a film from the novel, directed by Byron Haskin, starring George Montgomery and produced by Mark Cooper. It was to be called Twist of the Knife and to be filmed in Mexico in July.{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Betty |date=July 1, 1966 |title=Train on a 'Foreign' Track |pages=D11 |work=Los Angeles Times}} Filming did not proceed.

In April 1967 it was announced Twist of the Knife would be produced by Skip Steloff for Calderon-Stell and directed by Sam Fuller, his first film since The Naked Kiss. The cast would include Burt Reynolds, Arthur Kennedy and Barry Sullivan.{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Betty |date=April 24, 1967 |title=Fonda Joins 'Madigan' Cast |pages=D23 |work=Los Angeles Times}}

The film was to be the first in a series of co productions between Skip Steloff, Marc Cooper's Heritage Productions, and Jose Luis Calderon's Cinemtographia Calderon.

When Sam Fuller joined the project, he rewrote the script and retitled it Caine. He shared writing credit with John Kingsbridge.

Fuller later said "I liked the idea of making a story where, for once, the hero is really the heavy, the heavy is the girl, there's another heavy, and you find out in the end they're all heavies."{{harvnb|Dombrowski|2008|p=178}}

He elaborated, saying he liked "doing a story about four amoral characters... to show not only a double cross on a double cross but when we think we know who the heavy is, we find out the real heavy behind it all is the girl... I have the hero not only allow her to die, but he shrugs it off. I thought that was exciting... I had such fun because I went beyond the average switch of revealing the villain. I also didn't have the guy just let the girl go to jail; he lets her be eaten by sharks."{{harvnb|Fuller|2012|pp=37–38}}

Even before filming began, the producers announced they had signed Fuller to a four-picture deal, including a sequel to Caine.

Filming took place for nine weeks in 1967, in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico, which stood in for the Sudan.

It has been claimed that while shooting in the waters of Isla Mujeres, one of the film's stuntmen, José Marco, was attacked and killed on camera by a shark that broke through protective netting. This supposed attack was said to be captured on film and prompted a photo spread in Life magazine.{{Cite magazine |date=June 7, 1968 |title=Shark Kills a Man |pages=86–87 |magazine=Life}} It has been claimed that the title was changed to Shark! to cash in on the controversy. However, in an investigation published in Skin Diver magazine, dive-shop operator Dewey Bergman claimed to have been unable to find any record of the supposed attack, receiving statements from local port authorities and medical officials which denied any knowledge of such an incident. Bergman concluded that the photographs published in Life were "of a dead or drugged grey shark", and later received a statement from Life's editorial counsel that the story "may, it turns out, have been a hoax".{{Cite magazine |last=Bergman |first=Dewey |date=November 1969 |title=THE GREAT SHARK HOAX The Straight Scoop on an unauthenticated Shark Attack |magazine=Skin Diver |pages=32–34}} Marine biologist Richard Ellis wrote that "[i]t was a perfectly harmless sequence in which no one was hurt except the shark, which subsequently died", and claimed the photographs published in Life were accomplished with "lots of ketchup".{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Richard |title=The Book of Sharks |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1989 |isbn=0-679-72210-6 |location=New York |pages=80}}

Fuller supervised editing in Mexico City for four weeks. His cut was later re-edited by Herbert L. Strock{{Cite book |last=Humphreys |first=Justin |title=Interviews Too Shocking To Print!: Conversations with Horror Filmmakers and Their Accomplices |publisher=BearManor Media |year=2014 |isbn=978-1593934460 |pages=53–76}} without Fuller's approval. When he finally saw the version that was released to theaters, he said he thought it was "terrible. I told them I wanted to restore my original cut. They said they didn't know if they could get it from Mexico."{{harvnb|Fuller|2012|p=38}}

Fuller demanded the producers take his name off it. The producers refused.

The New York Times thought the film "still suggests the imagination of" Fuller.{{Cite news |date=June 16, 1970 |title=Shark!,' Story of Hunt for Bullion |pages=54 |work=New York Times}}

The film was re-released by Hallmark in 1975 as Man-Eater to cash in on the success of Jaws. Advertising focused on the supposed death of the stuntman in the film.{{Cite journal |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=July–August 1975 |title=SPLITTING JAWS WITH THE HAPPY BOOKER: A TALK WITH A CIRCUIT BUYER |journal=Film Comment |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=57–62, 64}}

The Los Angeles Times called this version "threadbare".{{Cite news |last=Thomas |first=Kevin |date=September 26, 1975 |title='Linda Lovelace for President' |pages=F19 |work=Los Angeles Times}}

• List of American films of 1969

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|33em}}

• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVd4b-w-bE0C|title=The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You|first=Lisa|last=Dombrowski|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|date=2008|isbn=9780819568663}}
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qv9yKS4jjX0C&q=shark&pg=PA70|title=Samuel Fuller: Interviews|first=Samuel|last=Fuller|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|date=2012|isbn=9781617033063}}

{{refend}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0066365|title=Shark!}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|caine}}
• [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-week-shark Richard Brody on the 1969 film at The New Yorker]

{{Samuel Fuller}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shark! (Film)}}

Category:1969 films

Category:1969 action films

Category:1969 adventure films

Category:1969 independent films

Category:1960s English-language films

Category:1960s American films

Category:1960s Mexican films

Category:American action films

Category:American independent films

Category:English-language Mexican films

Category:Mexican action films

Category:Troma Entertainment films

Category:Films directed by Samuel Fuller

Category:Films based on British novels

Category:Films set in Sudan

Category:Films shot in Mexico

Category:Films with screenplays by Samuel Fuller

Category:Films about shark attacks

Category:Films about treasure hunting

Category:Underwater action films

Category:English-language adventure films