Pickup On South Street (1953)

Every time I see a Samuel Fuller movie I am reminded of the fact that I want to see ALL the Samuel Fuller movies. Having started my journey through his work with two titles that are arguably his most well-known, I keep forgetting how many more I have to experience. I’ve yet to find a bad one, and I encourage everyone to explore his brilliant filmography.

Pickup On South Street is the tale of a pickpocket (Skip McCoy, played by Richard Widmark) who inadvertently dips the wrong purse. Little does he realise that he has ended up with some film that was being handed over to communist villains by a blissfully ignorant young woman (Candy, played by Jean Peters). The police want to get their hands on the film before it can be passed on, and they enlist the help of a wise informant named Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter). While Skip is used to staying one step ahead of the police, he has rarely been in such demand. Candy wants to negotiate with him, while others start planning a less pleasant way to retrieve the valuable stolen item.

Zipping along for the entire 80-minute runtime, and anchored by two fantastic lead performances, this is arguably one of the very best film noirs from writer-director Fuller. And if you remember all of the praise I JUST wrote at the start of this review (and how could you forget it already, unless you are a goldfish, and if you are a goldfish . . . how the hell are you even reading this review?) then you will know that it must be working hard to reach a very high bar. It’s a fun film, thanks to the characters and the dialogue, but it also builds the tension on the way to a brilliant and satisfying third act.

Widmark is a great actor, and was used especially well in a number of film noirs, so I expected to enjoy his portrayal of Skip. What I didn’t expect was for it to easily rank up there as one of his best ever performances. Mixing in just the right amounts of cheek, charm, selfishness, and a wobbly moral compass needle, Skip is one of the great anti-heroes, with strong emphasis on the “anti” part. Although it is hard to equal him, Peter acquits herself very well in the role of Candy, a woman who shows some real mettle when she discovers that she has been used as a mule for something she wouldn’t willingly want any part of. Very easy to like, and working well with Widmark, Peters does well to keep the film from being stolen away completely by her leading man. Ritter is a lot of fun in her role, and she uses her few scenes to cast a long shadow over the whole film, and there are various “cops and robbers” played by the likes of Murvyn Vye, Milburn Stone, Willis Bouchey, and Richard Kiley, who all do well enough in their roles.

Fuller yet again manages to mix the drama and thrills with little details that lend an authenticity to everything, as was his greatest strength, but the fluctuating relationship between Skip and Candy is the strong heart of the movie. Everyone involved does very good work, whether in front of the camera or behind it, and the end result is guaranteed entertainment for fans of film noir.

9/10

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Mubi Monday: Pillow Talk (1959)

Although the idea may seem beyond comprehension to modern viewers, Pillow Talk is a rom-com based around the idea of two people sharing a party line. They both have a telephone, and can listen in on the conversations of the other. This causes a problem when one is a well-behaved young lady and the other is a, well, a bit of a cad. Hilarity, and romance, ensues. Of course.

Doris Day is Jan Morrow, the lady in this tale, an interior designer with a good life and no man in it to cause her any grief. Rock Hudson is Brad Allen, the cad, a man who plays the same tune on his guitar for different women, just changing the name to suit whoever he might be wooing. Brad is getting romantic with a number of woman. Jan is trying to politely avoid the affections of one of her clients, Jonathan (Tony Randall). Jonathan also happens to be friends with Brad, which is how the cad finds out about the lovely appeal of a woman who he has only encountered so far over the telephone, with her interrupting his calls to ask for some time on her own line. Brad decides to have some fun, giving himself a Texan persona to try and seduce Jan. As things play out, he finds himself falling for her, which makes things complicated as the truth must eventually out.

Written by Stanley Shapiro (who wrote a few movies featuring the pairing of Day and Hudson) and Maurice Richlin, Pillow Talk is light fun, entirely predictable throughout, and a real delight. And I do mean a delight. Director Michael Gordon has a filmography with very few titles that leap out as classics (this and the Day/Garner film Move Over, Darling being the highlights, from my experience), but he does a good enough job here. Everything is as bright and breezy as it should be, and the script has enough great laughs to keep things ticking over.

But this isn't really a film about the directorial style, it's a film about Day and Hudson working alongside one another. Both highly enjoyable stars in their own right, having them together onscreen creates the kind of chemistry we don't see enough of. I can't really think of any modern comparisons, although I am open to suggestions. Randall does just fine in his role, although he's really just the third wheel for most of the film, and Thelma Ritter steals a few scenes, playing a drunken housekeeper who has had her share of enjoyment listening in on the party line.

It's old-fashioned, in some ways it feels far too dated, and coasts along more on the charms of the two leads than any other aspect of the film, although things are done well, but I will happily watch this whenever I want to spend 102 minutes in good company. Day has always made me smile, just by appearing onscreen, and Hudson is as charismatic as she is beatific. They would enable me to enjoy even a bad movie, and this is by no means a bad movie.

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can get a nice 4-pack here.