Pickup on South Street

In 1953 Richard Widmark starred in a splendidly grimy little noir picture called Pickup on South Street, which was written and directed by Sam Fuller. Fuller has had a reputation as one of unsung geniuses of cinema, hailed by modern moviemakers like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Quentin Tarantino. This was my first time seeing one of his pictures, and it is a delight.

The story concerns a pickpocket (or "cannon" in the parlance of the times) played by Widmark. He lifts a wallet from a pretty girl's purse on the subway, but he doesn't know that it contains microfilm that was supposed to go to a communist agent. Soon both the FBI and the commies are after him, but he's a slick character and plays all the angles brilliantly, while also falling in love with the girl (Jean Peters).

The writing and direction is crisp and no-nonsense. In the extras (this is a Criterion disc) Fuller expresses a love for petty criminals. He was a newspaperman and pulp novelist before he was a filmmaker, so that makes some sense. Widmark's character, while certainly a low-life, is almost something of a hero in that he is true to himself. There is also a great character played by Thelma Ritter (who received an Oscar nomination for it) as a stoolie who sells information to anyone with green. Even though she has led the cops to Widmark, he doesn't begrudge her for it, saying "she's gotta eat." Ritter's only ambition is to raise enough money to get herself a nice burial plot so she doesn't have to go to potter's field. "I'm trying to make a living so I can die," she says.

Peters, who was a beauty queen who had a brief film career, is quite lovely to look at but doesn't quite sell herself as a tough cookie. Also in the cast is Richard Kiley as a commie bad guy. He is most well known to people of a certain age for starring in Broadway musicals like Man of La Mancha.