Caine (1969) Shark! (original title)

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writers:

Samuel Fuller (screenplay)
Victor Canning (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

8 October 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

More 'Bite' Than "JAWS"!

Plot:

A gunrunner loses his cargo near a small coastal Sudanese town so he's stuck there. When a woman hires him to raid a sunken ship in the shark-infested waters, he sees a chance to compensate for his losses. He's not the only one. |

Plot Keywords:

Sunken Ship | Car Over Cliff | Fistfight | Hairy Chest | Sunken Treasure

Cast

Burt Reynolds	...	Caine
Arthur Kennedy	...	Doc
Silvia Pinal	...	Anna
Barry Sullivan	...	Prof. Dan Mallare
Enrique Lucero	...	Inspector Barok
Carlos Barry	...	Runt
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Manuel Alvarado	...	Latalla
José Chávez	...	Lieutenant (as Jose Chavez Trowe)
Francisco Reiguera	...	Yusef
Emilia Stuart	...	Asha
José Marco	...	Pedro - Diver in Opening Scene (uncredited)

Directed by
Samuel Fuller

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Victor Canning		novel "His Bones Are Coral"
Samuel Fuller		screenplay
Ken Hughes		adaptation (uncredited)
John Kingsbridge		screenplay

Produced by
José Luis Calderón	....	associate producer
Mark Cooper	....	producer
Skip Steloff	....	producer

Original Music by
Rafael Moroyoqui

Cinematography by
Raúl Martínez Solares

Film Editing by
Carlos Savage

Art Direction by
Manuel Fontanals

Production Management
Herbert L. Strock	....	post-production supervisor

Stunts
José Marco	....	stunts

Production Companies

• Cinematográfica Calderón S.A.
• Heritage Entertainment Inc.

Distributors

• Excelsior Pictures Corp. (1969) (USA) (theatrical)
• Hallmark Releasing (1975) (USA) (theatrical) (a Newport release) (retitled re-release, as "Man-Bait")
• G.V.C. Super-Video (????) (Switzerland) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Korporatsiya Arena (????) (Russia) (VHS)
• Neon Video (1988) (USA) (VHS)
• Olive Films (2012) (Canada) (DVD) (DVD and Blu-ray)
• Olive Films (2012) (USA) (DVD) (DVD and Blu-ray)
• Troma Team Video (1997) (worldwide) (all media)
• Video City International (1983) (Greece) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Shark!" - USA (original title)
"Maneater" - , USA (reissue title)
"Shark" - International (English title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA | Mexico

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:M | USA:R (re-rating) | USA:PG (video re-rating) | Iceland:12 | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico

Company:

Cinematográfica Calderón S.A.

Trivia:

The original film's title was "Caine", after the main character's name (played by Burt Reynolds), but the producers decided to change the name so it would sound like a killer animal movie, in order to draw younger crowds.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Terror Firmer (1999)

Reynolds' character is more shark than the film

Stranded American with dubious origins takes a job as a deckhand aboard the vessel of a marine biologist and his attractive assistant as a means to escape the Sudan. Amid all the fisticuffs and double-crossing, a few people are mauled by a rogue shark. Ostensibly a sunken treasure picture, this film was notorious at the time of its release after one of the stunt divers was fatally mauled by a supposedly sedated shark, but this notoriety doesn't warrant any serious speculation into the film itself, which lacks excitement.

Burt Reynolds as the gun-running Caine, while affable, isn't given the dialogue to make a memorable impression, while his supporting cast (some of distinction), also labour pointlessly with limited material. Mexican based actress Silvia Pinal is visually striking, but her characterisation is a muddled contradiction of sympathy and cruel indifference (that perhaps is not attributable to her interpretation, but the standard of the script).

The scenery is uninteresting, the minor players are obscure and hollow (with the exception of Runt, the cheeky, cigar smoking Mexican boy whom Caine befriends) and the sight and sound elements are amateurish. Director Fuller reportedly was so ambivalent about the movie, he distanced himself to the point of requesting his name be removed from the credits (which was declined). Despite this, Fuller's appreciation of film noir is evident in the characterisations, dialogue and staging, which at times, is strangely reminiscent of a film noir.

Though the title "Shark" bares some (scant) relevance to the plot, it's hardly a campaign of terror; three mangled corpses does not one shark movie make. Reynolds spends most of his time fighting, shaving and berating poor old Arthur Kennedy for being a hopeless drunk. In the end, everyone gets their comeuppance to varying degrees; some in the jaws of an unimpressive (in terms of threatening appearance, perhaps two metres at most) shark, others in more subtle fashion. Perhaps inspection of the novel on which this so-called film is based ("His Bones Are Coral" by Victor Canning) might glean some light on just why some distinguished film-makers elected to participate in such a mediocre picture.