Product: Pickup on South Street (The Criterion Collection) (1953)
Rating: 5.0
Pure pre-cold war
I saw this film long ago on television in my country, under the title of "El rata" (The rat) and, again, a couple of years ago in Paris under the absurd title of "Le port de la drogue" (The port of drugs). Now I have the video and see it every now and then. It is a very well elaborated movie typical of the pre-cold war times in the USA: the anti-communist paranoia, etcetera, along with a love story and, indeed, detectives, though guys and other fantasticaly well combined elements. The work of the Director is great, as well as the perfomances by Widmark and Jean Peters, extremely beautiful. Also, Thelma Ritter was awarded with an Oscar for the second feminine role. This is a must-see by all means and apart from the merits mentioned above, I recomend the superb music and, very particularly, the dialogue between Candy and Lightning Louie at the Chinese restaurant, unforgetable. Buyers will enjoy it very much.