RICHARD WIMARK IN SAMUEL FULLER'S 'PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET'

Title: PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET Year: 1953 Rating: ***1/2

Samuel Fuller's PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is arguably his best movie... if not his most conventional... a film noir that despises "Reds" and uses that word abundantly, which is a real treat given how much the moniker's been protected since the 1960's because of the paranoia-driven "witch hunts" the decade earlier...

And yet, Fuller tows the line of patriotism by having his antagonist a lifestyle lowlife/career-criminal pickpocket in New York City — who's a war vet, like Sam himself, and when the cops start "waving the flag," goading him into returning a microfilm that was inside ingenue Jean Peters' pocketbook, he demands they don't force patriotism...

From PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

This also establishes Richard Widmark's McCoy, holed in a dilapidated sea shanty that's like a character in itself, as being (after extremely wicked villain roles in KISS OF DEATH, THE STREET WITH NO NAME and ROAD HOUSE) one of the most ambiguous Noir characters in a genre full of them...

But it's not the leading man or lady, thrown together by chance as she wants back what he stole that belonged to abusive boyfriend Richard Kiley, selling the microfilm (a plot-driven device known as McGuffin) to Communists — it's Thelma Ritter who not only steals scenes, she carries the mantle as also being, technically speaking, the most important character herein...

Poster from PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

A streetwise bag-lady-style con-artist "fink" who provides names for a price, and this endearingly rough, tie-selling street hustler (like someone out of NIGHT AND THE CITY also starring a far more desperate Widmark) is the one person connecting McCoy with Jean Peters' Candy, who also plays it smooth and natural...

Despite falling way too hard, far too soon with Widmark, which is the only device seeming rushed, contrived: even someone resembling a Robert Mitchum or Cary Grant would have to work harder to melt a starlet this quickly, and it takes minutes here...

Poster from PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET 

 

But time is of the essence, and very little of it's spent on romance: any love stuff occurs simultaneously with the plot, unveiling a few extra layers as both thugs and cops are on the sideline, who take up much of the screen-time either hounding Peters...

Or Themla Ritter, who gives a fantastic monologue to the aforementioned psychotic heavy Richard Kiley as Joey, who, like our anti-hero, is really more a money-hungry con-man than outright communist...

Thelma Ritter in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

She plays it neatly, right down the middle, and, as for the antagonists, the only real "commies" spring out from the woodwork at the last minute since the film's hero, sticking firm to his con and still wanting a load of cash while not caring what side he's on, has to take part in an intrepid action sequence just like he captured the lady's cool heart...

Yet PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is more about dialogue, and Fuller's camera, moving back and forth from each character —  almost as if it were mimicking that shanty boat, tossing at sea but without being shaky... putting the characters in front of the crime, action, and even the politics.

Thelma Ritter and Richard Widmark in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Kiley in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Kiley in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Widmark and Richard Kiley in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Widmark and Murvyn Vye in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Wimark and Jean Peters in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

Richard Wimark and Jean Peters in PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET