Review of Pickup on South Street (1953) by Kirk E — 24 Jan 2011
What a dark and scary place it must have been inside writer/director Sam Fuller's head, noir-ish in tone and texture and populated with all manner of Runyonesque reprobates. That Widmark's sneering grifter Skip McCoy is the "hero" of this odd blend of crime drama and espionage thriller is testimony to the notion that Fuller had unconventional ideas about characters and archetypes.
He dispenses with good guys and bad guys, replacing them with flawed cops and virtuous villains and making people out of protagonists. In constructing such complex characters he was, in many ways, far ahead of his time.
Thelma Ritter is wonderfully tragic as an in-the-know small-time information broker whose greatest ambition near the end of her life is to avoid Potter's Field and be buried in a plot all her own.
Like many of its dramatis personae, the film has a coarse exterior that can be hard to penetrate, but has a beating heart underneath that may take a second look to fully appreciate.
This review of Pickup on South Street (1953) was written by Kirk E on 24 Jan 2011.
Pickup on South Street has generally received very positive reviews.
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