Pickup On South Street(1953)

[ERROL23]

 

Candy(Jean Peters)is a trashy streetwalker working for red bigwig,Joey(Richard Kiley)On a subway train Candy is holding stolen micro films in her purse.Shes being trailed by FBI agent Zara(Willis Bouchey)Also on the train is pickpocket Skip McCoy(Richard Widmark)Skip steals the micro film and leaves the train before anyone can stop him.

 

 

Zara goes to local police detective Captain Dan Tiger(Murvyn Vye)Tiger calls in police informant Moe Williams(Thelma Ritter)who knows every crook in the city.She tells them its Skip.Skip looks over his loot for the day and finds the microfilm.Skip hides it away suspecting its value.Hes picked up by the police,but released because of lack of evidence.

 

 

Candy goes to Joey and tells him what happened.Joey gives her $500 to find the theif and recover the film.Through her underworld links, she at last meets Skip.Skip and Candy fall for each other,but when he suspects shes only interested in the stolen microfilm he tells her he wants Joey to pay $25000 for it.

 

 

Film Noir as good as it gets.

 

 

The Lux Radio Broadcast(1954)was good too with Stephen McNally as Skip,Terry Moore as Candy,and Ted De Corsia as Captain Tiger.Thelma repeats her role as Moe.

 

 

[mrroberts]

*Pickup On South Street* is a favorite of mine, I even put out the big bucks for the criterion DVD. The storyline is a little hokey but the casting more than makes up for it. Richard Widmark is at his best, Jean Peters (who I adore) plays it "trashy" and "classy" at the same time (like my gal Lee Remick in Anatomy Of A Murder). And finally there's the always excellent Thelma Ritter doing her usual excellent work (somehow she should have gotten an Oscar win sometime, this would have been as good a time as any). Don't ever waste your time on the 60's remake of this one, even the beautiful Jacky Bisset can't save it.

[ERROL23]

The Lux Radio Version was great too.Stephen McNally,Terry Moore,and Thelma Ritter(Repeats her role as the police informant)

[mrroberts]

Its on tonight!

[wickedmountain]

A big fave of mine love this film

[JamesJazGuitar]

A big fave of mine love this film

 

Pick-Up is a fine movie and one of the best film noirs.    Great performances by Widmark, Peters (playing a 'bad' girl),  and Ritter in another outstanding performance.

[cigarjoe]

It was on FXM today

[decojoe67]

GREAT movie. I lent it to someone a while back and he's practically obsessed with the movie now. Rightfully so. Great acting and a real compelling storyline. All the actors do a great job, but Ritter really steals this one. Jean Peters is likely one of the last actors mentioned in listing femme fatale's, yet she did superb in this film.  

[cigarjoe]

2 hours ago, decojoe67 said:

 Jean Peters is likely one of the last actors mentioned in listing femme fatale's, yet she did superb in this film.  

It's a real shame she didn't appear in more Noirs, She's great in Niagara, but the other two Blueprint For Murder, and Vicki weren't on the same level.

[JamesJazGuitar]

43 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

It's a real shame she didn't appear in more Noirs, She's great in Niagara, but the other two Blueprint For Murder, and Vicki weren't on the same level.

I haven't seen Blueprint for Murder but it would be the only noir where she played a really bad women.  In Vicki she was just a selfish brat and in Pick-Up the classic prostitute with a heart of gold.  

[cigarjoe]

8 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:

I haven't seen Blueprint for Murder but it would be the only noir where she played a really bad women.  In Vicki she was just a selfish brat and in Pick-Up the classic prostitute with a heart of gold.  

In Pick-Up she projects something that's missing in the other two, she just doesn't come off as well in the other rolls, maybe she would have had a longer career if she had gotten a bit type cast. Example Goldie Hawn pretty much played the same type in about three or four films along with her stint in Laugh-In.