Visiting Film Noir: Pickup on South Street

1953 Film Noir
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Samuel Fuller

Starring
Richard Widmark
Jean Peters
Thelma Ritter
Murvyn Vye
Richard Kiley
Willis Bouchey

On a New York subway a pickpocket lifts a woman's wallet, unknown to him or her that it contains microfilm destined for communists' hands.  As a result the commies, the FBI and local cops come after him.  While that is at the center of the story, suffice it to say it gets more complicated and violent before its conclusion.

Sam Fuller's films popped in and out of several genres but most were invested with brutal violence and its psychological influence on both the victims and the perpetrators.  His films roamed around seemingly forsaken neighborhoods and were populated with seedy denizens.  While these descriptions would apply to a number of his films, they are particularly appropriate for this one, his masterpiece. 

The plot plays out excitingly and tension seems to be ramped up in every scene.  Fuller wrote the screenplay as well and he knew something about what he was writing because he had once been a news reporter whose beat was this neighborhood.  He also fashioned a lineup of fascinating characters, none of them exactly straight arrows.

Widmark plays the sleazy, smartass pickpocket who would sell his mother for the price of a burger.  He's an unctuous type who will say what he needs to say and never admit the truth.  He's always playing some sort of mind games.  He's also a three-time loser who can't afford another bust.  He lives in a waterfront shack (actually it's on pylons in the river) and everyone who wants to find him does so easily enough.

His mark is Peters who has used her considerable charms to get what she wants in life.  She'd like to go straight but it's been difficult with the rub being she doesn't think she deserves anything better than the life she knows.  To her credit she is aware of her bad choices.  One of those is her ex-boyfriend, Kiley, who has kept from her the fact that he is a commie.  She should have made a clean break but one of her shortcomings is the ability to say and do things with finality.

Ritter didn't play characters this dark or in films that went where this one goes.  She sells men's ties on the street for a buck a piece as a vendor would.  But where she makes her good money is from being an informant for the police.  

It is Ritter's character who begins tying the various pieces together for others.  Her great sense of street behavior allows her to name Widmark as the pickpocket.  That allows the cop to show mug shots to the FBI guy who spotted Widmark on the subway.  When they ask Ritter for Widmark's current address, she advises that will cost more.

Peters get dragged back into it and makes her way to Widmark's shanty where he distrusts her and belts her one in the jaw.  She admits she wants the microfilm.  He doesn't admit to having it.  She says he would be wise to deal with her because there are some very bad people who will soon be visiting and they won't be nearly as nice.  He gives his Widmark sneer and sends her on her way.

One realizes Kiley is a piece of work when he insists that Peters keep trying to get the microfilm, even at great peril to both of them.  He certainly doesn't want the authorities, any of them, to come snooping around.  But after Peters again can't get the film and looses the ransom for it to Widmark's purse-snatching, Kiley beats up Peters in a scene that's kinda hard to watch.  He also murders Ritter when she won't give him Widmark's address.  

Ultimately Peters knocks Widmark out with a whiskey bottle and gets the microfilm.  She gives it to the cops who, in turn, give it back and together they all set up a trap to lure the baddest bad guy.  Before the end, Peters is shot (yes by Kiley), there's lots of visitors to Widmark's shack and a good chase scene.

I was never particularly fond of the ending in which Widmark and Peters, she having recovered from the gunshot and both having finally awakened from the circumstances of their wrong-o lives, go off together in some sort of Rock and Doris haze.  I ain't buyin' it but I cannot allow a silly ending to ruin what is an excellent film noir.

I could have done without the commie plot but Cold War films were turned out around the time with some frequency.  If one were alive at the time and not in diapers, one knew of communism.  I know I got sick of hearing about it.  My parents stopped just short of making us check under the beds.  

Widmark's character constantly makes cracks when communism is brought up saying it sounds like a lot of flag-waving.  (I've wondered if those inclusions were the left-leaning Widmark's idea.) That and other remarks apparently made their way to the FBI offices of J. Edgar Hoover who stomped and hollered and investigated.

20th Century Fox didn't venture too far for its three leads... they were all under contract.  Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck wanted his boy Widmark and Marilyn Monroe in the movie.  They had just completed the noir, Don't Bother to Knock, and he thought they'd be perfect for the roles.  Fuller nixed Monroe immediately but thought Widmark, already a noir veteran, would be perfect.

I have always loved Richard Widmark, an actor who seemed to penetrate audiences with his specific technique, and I would guess I've seen every theatrical movie he's ever made.  He was superb in those slimeball roles, starting with his first as killer Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death.  The best that could be said about him in Pickup is at least he's not a killer.  He was also not the easiest person on a film set, especially at first.  He had a basic disdain of actors who weren't prepared and a distrust of directors and Fuller was no exception.  They had their moments but as usual with the actor, they were quickly resolved.

After MM got turned down, Zanuck wanted Betty Grable for the female lead and she wanted it as well.  In discussing the part with the director, she told him she wanted a dance number included and when he refused, so did she.  That was fine with Fuller... he didn't want her anyway.  

One day Fuller was eating in the studio commissary when Peters walked by and he was quite taken with her walk.  He liked the confidence it showed.  When he spoke with her he found her to have a sassy tone and that nailed it for him.  She was another great favorite of mine and I saw nearly all of her films and know that she never had a role like this one.  She let it all hang out, loose as a goose in her mannerisms.  All she needed were jangly bracelets and chewing a wad of gum.  She nailed playing a character who needed to exude confidence but didn't actually have it.  Widmark claimed she was one of his favorite female costars and they would work together a year later in the western Broken Lance.

The surprise of the movie for me was Ritter.  Gone was the wisecrack comedy and the cuteness.  Here she is a worn-out snitch, wearing old house-dresses, living in a room with doom written all over her.  She had not played a part like this one and wouldn't again.  So surprised were the Oscar folks that they honored her with the fourth of her six supporting nominations.  By the way, two more of those will be in films showcased this month.

Kiley was also impressive in a scumbag role but not that one necessarily realizes that at first.  As it becomes more difficult for him to get hold of the microfilm, the more lethal he becomes.  He does it all without losing his cool until it comes time to beat up and kill women.

Fuller was always fond of character actors.  He thought they made movies as good as they could be.  He loved elevating them to better roles which he certainly accomplished for Ritter, one of the finest character actresses the movies ever had.  But he also did it here for Murvyn Vye as the vicious cop who has it in for Widmark and for Willis Bouchey (you've seen him in many, many films) as the government agent. 

Some may carp that Pickup on South Street is too seedy and dreary for their tastes or that there's not really a character to root for and while I certainly see both, I ignore them in favor of superb acting, crisp dialogue and a tense noir story.

In 2018 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Bravo to all who participated.

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A Swede for 5 American films