Pickup on South Street - Samuel Fuller

Seen for the first time in September 2012.

This is basically anti-communist propaghanda, but at the same time so very…stylish. I love film noir done well, and this is a fine example at its toughest and leanest. I recalled Richard Widmark from Jules Dassin’s excellent “The Night and the City,” and this is another great performance. The women who played Mo is also great.

What helps elevate this above anti-communist silliness is the fact that Widmark’s character is such a louse, such a two-bit low-life, instead of some kind of boy scout. This allows the femme to play the real hero of the film. Widmark never even really has that formulaic Bogey-in-Casablanca turn from cynicism to patriotic idealism. He is shown to have a sentimental side however, with Mo’s death and the femme.

There was a moment when the dirty commie shoots the girl when I thought this might be the bleakest movie I had ever seen, but this one gives us a happy ending which I am of two minds about. I like the ending, but the final moments are a little cornball. That’s okay though. The stylized dialogue and engaging tautness of the preceding eighty minutes more than make up for it. Grade A.