Pickup on South Street
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| Pickup on South Street | |
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| Directed by | Samuel Fuller |
| Produced by | Jules Schermer |
| Written by | Samuel Fuller (story) Dwight Taylor |
| Starring | Richard Widmark Jean Peters Thelma Ritter Murvyn Vye Richard Kiley Willis Bouchey Milburn Stone |
| Cinematography | Joseph MacDonald |
| Editing by | Nick DeMaggio |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | June 17, 1953 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 80 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Shot in just 20 days, Pickup on South Street is writer-director Samuel Fuller's 1953 film noir released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter.
Ritter would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress and Samuel Fuller was awarded the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his direction of the picture. In June of 1954, Ritter co-stared alongside Terry Moore and Stephen McNally in a Lux Radio Theatre presentation of the story.
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[edit] Plot
One afternoon, FBI agents Zara and Enyart are following an attractive woman named Candy as she takes the subway in New York City. Unknown to Candy, her wallet is stolen by a "cannon," a pickpocket who targets women, and when she realizes that her wallet is gone, she calls her former boyfriend, Joey. With Enyart following her, she returns to Joey's apartment, where Joey upbraids her for losing the microfilm that she was supposed to deliver to a mysterious higher-up in Joey's organization. Although Candy believes that Joey is selling chemical formulas to a rival firm, he is actually a Communist who is passing on secret government information to an overseas Communist ring. Candy has made several drops for Joey and does not understand why he is so upset about this one, which he had promised would be her last. Joey insists that Candy, an ex-prostitute, use her street connections to locate the pickpocket who accosted her and retrieve the microfilm. Meanwhile, Zara approaches police captain Dan Tiger and explains that the FBI has been following Candy for six months in order to catch the ringleader of the Communist organization. Tiger then summons Moe, a necktie peddler who often sells him information about the underworld. After grilling Zara about the pickpocket's mannerisms, Moe gives Tiger eight names, and Tiger immediately picks out Skip McCoy, a "three-time loser" who was recently released from prison. Moe then tells Tiger that Skip is living in a rundown shack on the waterfront, and Tiger, who bears a grudge against Skip because of his insolence, sends policemen Winoki and MacGregor to arrest him. Skip, who did steal Candy's wallet and has found the microfilm inside, hides it and taunts Tiger about their rivalry.
Although Skip protests his innocence, Zara reveals that he is an eyewitness and informs Skip about what he has stolen. Not trusting Tiger's promise that the theft charges will be dropped if he returns the film, Skip scoffs at Zara's appeal to his patriotism and leaves. Skip then uses the microfilm reader at the New York Public Library to scan the film and deduces that it is of a chemical formula. Meanwhile, Candy locates Moe and pays her for Skip's address. When Skip returns home, he finds Candy searching his possessions and knocks her unconscious, then steals her money before reviving her. While fighting the sexual attraction they feel for each other, Candy and Skip flirt and quarrel, and Skip tells her that he knows what the film is and demands money for it. As Candy returns to Joey, Tiger enters Skip's shack and offers to whitewash his criminal record in exchange for the film. Skip orders Tiger to leave, while at Joey's apartment, Joey's desperation grows and he gives Candy $500 with which to bribe Skip. Candy, who has fallen in love with Skip, confronts him, and Skip admits that as a three-time felon, he will be jailed for life if he is convicted again. Hoping to secure his future with a "big score," Skip demands that Candy's "Commie" friends pay him $25,000, and Candy, not understanding what Skip means, meets Joey in his boss's office. There, Candy is astonished when Joey confirms that he and his cohorts are Communists, and becomes agitated when Joey's boss gives him a pistol and orders him to deliver the microfilm the following evening. Desperate to protect Skip, Candy gives Joey a false address, then tells Moe that she honestly did not know about Joey's politics. Moe promises Candy that she will not inform Joey of Skip's whereabouts, and then finds Skip herself, to warn him about Joey. Skip brushes asides Moe's reprimands about dealing with Communists, and also her assertion that Candy loves him. When Moe returns home, she finds Joey waiting for her, and after she refuses to inform on Skip, Joey shoots her. The police attempt to arrest Skip for the murder, but Enyart, who has been following the pickpocket, vouches for his innocence, and Skip claims Moe's body so that she will not be buried in Potter's Field. When Skip returns to his shack, he finds a distraught Candy waiting for him, and he soothingly tells her that Moe's death is not her fault. When Skip then demands the money, Candy knocks him unconscious and steals the microfilm. Hoping to clear Skip's name, Candy takes the film to Tiger and Zara, telling them that Skip directed her to do so.
Although he is doubtful about Skip's intentions, Zara asks Candy to help them by giving the film to Joey, who they can then follow to the ringleader. Later, Joey goes to Candy's apartment, and when he discovers that a frame of the film is missing, he beats Candy and shoots her. Finding Skip's address in Candy's purse, Joey eludes the police, and later, when Skip visits Candy in the hospital, she tells him that she betrayed him because she would "rather have a live pickpocket than a dead traitor." Finally realizing that he loves Candy, Skip kisses her, then goes home to wait for Joey. Soon after, Joey and his cohort, Fenton, arrive to search for the missing frame of film, although Fenton sends Joey ahead to the airport to make the delivery while he tries to find Skip. Skip follows Joey to the airport, where he catches Joey making the delivery. After slugging the ringleader, Skip chases Joey through the streets into the subway, whre he beats him mercilessly. Later, in Tiger's office, the police captain grudingly releases Skip, and both Skip and Candy laugh at Tiger's assertion that he will be arrested again within thirty days.
[edit] Memorable Quote
"I know you pinched me three times and got me convicted three times and made me a three time loser. And I know you took an oath to put me away for life. Well you're trying awful hard with all this patriotic eye-wash, but get this: I didn't grift that film and you can't prove I did! And if I said I did, you'd slap that fourth rap across my teeth no matter what promises you made!" - Skip McCoy (Widmark)
[edit] Trivia
- The working title for the film was Blaze of Glory.
- Original reports have Fred Kohlmar producing, and Shelley Winters to play the role of Candy, but due to her pregancy, she was to be replaced by Betty Grable. Grable refused the role, however, and was placed on suspension by Twentieth Century-Fox. Grable stated that the role would not be well received by her fans and that she "was not adapted for such a straight dramatic role." Linda Darnell and Anne Baxter were also brought into consideration.
- In August of 1952, the script was deemed unacceptable by the production code, by reasons of "excessive brutality and sadistic beatings, of both men and women." The committe also expressed disdain for the vicious beating of the character "Candy", on the part of "Joey." Although a revised script was accepted soon after, the studio was forced to shoot multiple takes of a particular scene in which the manner of Jean Peters and Dick Riley frisk each other for loot, was too risqué.
- The French release of the movie removed any reference to spies and microfilm in the translation. They called the movie, "Le Port de la Drogue" ("The Drugs Port"). The managers of 20th Century Fox thought that the theme of communist spies was too controversial in a country where the Communist Party was still hugely influential.
- In the opening scene on the subway, a soldier leaves a subway car wearing the "Big Red One" 1st Infantry Division shoulder patch. Director Fuller fought with the 1st Infantry Division during World War II, and later filmed the story in the movie The Big Red One (1980).
- Twentieth Century-Fox remade the picture in 1967 as The Cape Town Affair, which was directed by Robert D. Webb and starred Claire Trevor, James Brolin and Jacqueline Bisset.
