Director: Samuel Fuller
Producer: Jules Schermer
Screenwriter: Samuel Fuller
Cinematographer: Joseph MacDonald
Music: Lionel Newman
Studio: 2oth Century Fox 1953
Main Acting: Richard Widmark and Jean Peters
Director Samuel Fuller’s reputation continues to grow with every passing year. With such major cinematic figures as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino consistently praising his body of work, the journalist-turned-low-budget-maverick has moved closer and closer to the front rank of auteurists in the eyes of many movie lovers. While I can praise a Fuller picture for many of the same qualities that the above filmmakers do (toughness, brash ostracized characters, blunt tabloid-like stories) as well as acknowledge how his themes could marvel a modern audience, I do remain mysteriously unmoved by his overall filmography. At times, his message can feel as forced and heavy handed as a George Romero zombie flick. With Pickup On South Street, I am highlighting what I consider to be the best feature the director ever managed to make (with The Steel Helmet a close second).
Noir has many examples of works within its genre that harness ludicrous plots and hair-brained developments that push credibility to the breaking point. Pickup On South Street is such a case. Richard Widmark plays a professional pickpocket, Skip McCoy, who grifts a wallet from a saucy dame, Candy (apt name for character played by Jean Peters), that just so happens to have some microfilm that is valuable to Communists and the American government alike. Given to her by her ex-boyfriend Joey, as one more favor before they break-up up for good, she’s expected to deliver the harmless-looking contents to a mysterious man she is scheduled to meet. Not getting this strip of celluloid transported properly can lead to much hardship for all the main central players. Portraying the standard noir anti-hero, Skip figures out that the contents are valuable and looks to collect as much dough as he can wring out from whoever feels like ponying up some cash. Candy’s feeble attempts to persuade him to give her back the merchandise only leads to her being slapped around a few times by Skip, which oddly enough, brings them closer together. As all concerned parties begin to slowly head towards a critical confrontation, the questions remaining are: Will Skip McCoy fall in love with Candy, resist dealing with determined commie infiltrators, and avoid a three-strike prison term that could land him in the big house indefinitely? (more…)