Pickup On South Street

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (12)

D: Samuel Fuller

20th Century Fox (Jules Schermer)

US 🇺🇸 1953

80 mins

Crime/Thriller

W: Samuel Fuller

DP: Joseph MacDonald

Ed: Nick DeMaggio

Mus: Leigh Harline

Richard Widmark (Skip McCoy), Jean Peters (Candy), Thelma Ritter (Moe), Murvyn Vye (Capt. Dan Tiger), Richard Kiley (Joey), Willis Bouchey (Zara)

Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film noir is a moody, nuanced piece of work. 

Richard Widmark plays a pickpocket who targets a woman on a subway train, only to lift sensitive material that was meant for a Russian spy, making himself a target for the government, the reds and the femme fatale who he stole it from.

Thelma Ritter steals the show as a police snitch, but Widmark and Jean Peters are also excellent.

It’s probably lost a little of its power since the Cold War is more or less a thing of the past, but it’s a fine film for it’s day.

One of my 10 favourite films of 1953.

8/10