My Life in Movies

Pickup on South Street will be the last noir film I’ll be covering for a while, differing in many ways from the more recent noir I’ve covered. Whereas Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place is driven by interior, emotional concerns, Samuel Fuller’s film is focuses on the realm of the social. Dana B. Polen’s article on Film Reference sums it up best:

Sam Fuller’s narratives investigate the ways that belonging to a social group simultaneously functions to sustain and nurture individual identity and, conversely, to pose all sorts of emotional and ideological threats to that identity. Fuller’s characters are caught between a solitude that is both liberating and debilitating, and a communality that is both supportive and oppressive.

Pickup on South Street is the story of a pick-pocket (Richard Widmark) caught up in a web of intrigue after he steals a roll of microfilm from a woman on the subway. Candy (Jean Peters) is delivering the film for her ex-boyfriend, who just happens to be a Communist spy, while the FBI secretly tails her. After seeing the theft, the FBI agent tries to find the pickpocket by talking with the police, who talk to an informant named Moe (Thelma Ritter), an aging woman who peddles cheap ties down in the tunnels.

Fitting the theme as suggested by the quote above, much of the movie concerns Widmark’s pick-pocket, Skip McCoy, who has recently been released from prison and now lives alone in an abandoned baitshop along the docks. His existence is pictured as a lonely one, until Candy shows up, demanding the microfilm. He plays her, and they flirt, but he’s looking to make a deal and won’t give the film to her until ex-boyfriend pays up. McCoy is a good pick-pocket and knows it, but he’s been in jail 3 times already and knows that if he’s caught again, he won’t have the option of parole. He’s looking for leverage, and when he discovers the film sees an opportunity. McCoy is someone who accepts his social role, but that role also isolates him. Widmark’s performance is rather good and quite different from his role in Night and the City, where Fabian’s confidence was feigned from insecurity. McCoy is brash and arrogant, but he’s also comfortably cool and slick. This is a guy who knows what he’s doing and thinks within his limitations. While the role doesn’t allow Widmark quite the same range, he tackles it admirably.

Thelma Ritter in one of the film’s most heartbreaking scenes.

Even more impressive is Thelma Ritter as Moe the informant. Like McCoy, she understands her role and works competently in the world she knows. The two characters seem to connect on this level, and even after she has outted him to the police, they comfortably share coffee and conversation together. Moe’s primary goal as a paid informant is to amass enough money for her own funeral, but her plans are thwarted when the spy discovers that she is continuing the aid the police in capturing the stolen microfilm. In the most poignant scene in the film, she realizes that she will not live long enough to achieve her goal and with a sad face accepts her own premature death. Ritter seems to relish the role of this tough woman, approaching each sense with great humor and humanity. She’s very much the anchor of the film, again reflecting the notion of having a place in society while still being isolated.

Pickup on South Street has a rhythm that feels very fresh for the period, or at least reflects a brand of freshness evident in a number of the smaller, darker Hollywood films of the 40’s and 50’s. Prior to working as a director, Fuller was a journalist, and despite the reliance on sets and locations outside the New York of the film, his style suggests the energy of real life in a big city. The opening scene, for instance, works very well at showing the discomfort and suspicion we all feel in public transport. This is a world where everyone is jumbled together en masse yet entirely disconnected and alone. That this scene involves no dialogue or introduction of the characters enhances the lively, as-it-happens appeal. Beyond that, Fuller’s style is both interesting and economical, like most noirs operating on a combination of Expressionist drama and realist grit. While I’m more a fan of the mid/long shot myself, Fuller makes as good use of the closeup as Ray with In a Lonely Place, utilizing odd angles and juxtapositions that are exciting and suggestive of character/situation.

There are plenty of things I haven’t mentioned, particularly the subversion of the theme in film scripted to reflect the anti-communist sentiments of the period. Fuller seems to be suggesting that each character is manipulating others for the sake of money, even the cops who pay off Moe, yet the acquisition seems rather futile. As the quote from Polen reflects, the characters are trapped by collective concerns and individual concerns. While certain aspects reflect the progressive politics of other filmmakers like Dassin and Kazan, Fuller is not necessarily presenting an easy out. It is interesting that Fuller’s focus on social roles reminded me a bit of Brecht, who was an adamant communist.

In some respects, Pickup on South Street is a “cheap” film. Though there are a couple of great performances and a solid ensemble, the dialogue is at times corny and simplistic, particularly in the romantic scenes between McCoy and Candy. The anti-communist angle certainly dates the material, making it now seem quaint. Yet the complexity of the plot, the depth of the story, and fresh style make it one of the more interesting noir films of the 50’s.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Cinema, Film Noir, Golden Hollywood, Samuel Fuller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.