Pickup on South Street

Plot synopsis:
On a crowded New York City subway train, pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) steals Candy's (Jean Peters) wallet. Unbeknownst to Skip or Candy, in the wallet is microfilm of top-secret government information. Candy was delivering an envelope as a final favor to her ex-boyfriend, Joey (Richard Kiley). Joey has told her that it contains stolen business secrets and she believed him, unaware that Joey is actually a communist spy.
Government agent Zara (Willis Bouchey) had Candy under surveillance, hoping she would lead him to the top man in the spy ring. He seeks police help to identify the thief. Police Captain Dan Tiger (Murvyn Vye) has professional informant Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) brought in. After they agree on a price, she gives him a list of eight names; Zara quickly identifies Skip from his mug shot. Zara tries to get Skip to give up the film, revealing its importance and appealing to his (non-existent) patriotism, but Skip denies everything.
Meanwhile, Joey persuades a reluctant Candy to track down the thief using her underworld connections. The trail leads to Moe, who is delighted to be able to sell the same information a second time, knowing that her good friend Skip will not mind.
Candy searches Skip's waterfront shack that night while he is out. When he returns, he spots her flashlight, sneaks in and knocks her out. When she comes to, she tries to get the film from him without success. The second time she visits, she is puzzled when he calls her a "commie" and demands $25,000 for the film. Despite his rough treatment, however, she finds herself falling in love with him. Skip thinks she is only acting.
When she returns to Joey, his superior gives him a day to get the film back, and leaves him a gun. Candy finally realizes the truth. She turns to Moe for help, since Skip will not believe it if she tells him he is in danger. Moe tries, but fails, to convince Skip to give the film to the government. Moe goes home, and finds Joey waiting for her. Knowing that her strength is failing, and that she is dying, Moe refuses to reveal Skip's address for any amount of money, and taunts Joey with being a turncoat, and a rat until he shoots her dead.
The next morning, Skip returns home to find Candy there. She blames herself for Moe's death, but to her dismay, Skip is still willing to deal with Joey. When he starts to leave with the film, she knocks him out with a bottle and takes it to Zara and Tiger. Zara asks her to give Joey the film, so he can lead them to his boss. Candy does, but Joey notices that there is a frame missing. He beats Candy in an attempt to get Skip's address, then shoots her as she tries to leave. In her purse, Joey finds the address. Skip visits Candy in the hospital and comforts her.
Joey and an associate go to the shack, but Skip hears them coming and hides underneath. When Joey is ordered to deliver the portion of film he does have, Skip follows him to a subway station. He watches as the film is exchanged in a restroom, then knocks out the ringleader and chases after and beats up Joey.
Later, at the police station, Tiger predicts Skip will return to his criminal ways, but he and a recovered Candy depart to start a new life.

Tags: realism, violence, suspenseful, murder, romantic

Review:
It's not cartoon-like -- it's subtly woven into the background in a way that strikes you on a subconscious level until you've seen the film a few times and it just "clicks" that there's an alarm bell going off when she starts frantically going through her bag.Richard Widmark is way on top of his game as a smart-alec -- he's really great -- but the highlight performance of the film was the first scene for "Moe," the street peddler/informer, played by Thelma Ritter.
Wonderful stuff."Pickup On South Street" is also one of the few movies where, even though the characters aren't perfect, you do care about them -- perhaps because they have been somewhat branded by their pasts in ways that are hard to escape: Skip as a "three-time loser" and Candy as a youngish woman who has "knocked around" a lot.
Director Samuel Fuller concocts a brilliant visual set-up to this gritty story: cocky pickpocket unwittingly lifts some microfilm from a woman's purse; it turns out she's a courier for the Communists, and now they are both being watched by the police.
The best of the seven Sam Fuller movies that I've seen (including Park Row, Run of the Arrow, Verboten!, Shock Corridor, The Naked Kiss, The Big Red One, and this film), Pickup on South Street counts as one of the best film noirs.
Directed by Samuel Fuller, who also wrote the screenplay, Pickup on South Street is a tough, brutal, well made film about a pickpocket (Richard Widmark) who inadvertently aquires top-secret microfilm and becomes a target for espionage agents.
It's film-noir at its best and although the performances are very good its grand character actress Thelma Ritter who steals the movie.
It's quite an achievement that Fuller has crafted one of the best anti heroes of the 50s, and i'm sure he was most grateful to the performance of Richard Widmark as McCoy, all grin and icy cold heart, his interplay with the wonderful Jean Peters as Candy is excellent, and is the films heart.
However it is the Oscar nominated Thelma Ritter who takes the acting honours, her Moe is strong and as seedy as the surrounding characters, but there is a tired warmth to her that Ritter conveys majestically.It's a B movie in texture but an A film in execution, Pickup On South Street is a real classy and entertaining film that is the best of its most intriguing director.
In New York, the pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) steals a wallet in the purse of a woman named Candy (Jean Peters) in the subway.
It's too much for my budget at the moment, or I would purchase it, because the film is a good example of film noir...and I enjoy watching Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter.Criterion produces great DVDs but sometimes the asking price is just a bit much.
That's the case here for an 80-minute black-and-white, mono sound film that is good but nothing extraordinary, cinematography-wise.The story is the story here (as opposed to visuals, actors, sound, sets, etc.) as a pickpocket (Widmark) inadvertently winds up with espionage microfilm in his possession after pilfering Peters' purse.
Everyone but Peters is a believable character in this movie: Widmark, the cops, the U.S. agents and the Communists and, especially Ritter as "Moe," an informant.
That's the premise of this 1953 espionage film noir, starring Richard Widmark as the sly pickpocket, Skip McCoy, who unknowingly interrupts an impending transfer of American military secrets, as he picks the purse of a beautiful courier (Jean Peters) standing in a crowded New York subway.
The cops' informant is an old lady named Moe (Thelma Ritter), street-savvy, but pitiful, poignant, and tired, trying to save up enough money to buy herself a decent burial plot.The film's B&W lighting is delightfully noir.
Pickup on South Street (1953) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Three time loser Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) picks the pocket of a woman (Jean Peters) and ends up with some film that contains information meant for some Communist.
The last film noir I saw was Pickup on South Street (1953), directed by cult figure (and idolised by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut) Samuel Fuller, this is a biting, hard film noir, starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter.The story is thus: Skip McCoy (Widmark), a pickpocket who steals a wallet belonging to Candy (Peters) in the subway and contains on microfilm, government secrets (an excellent "MacGuffin" as Hitchcock would call it).
Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) pick-pockets Candy's (Jean Peters) wallet which contains an important microfiche that is intended for the Communist cause.
Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" (awfully translated here as "The Angel of Evil") could be more fun if it was more thrilling, and use less dialogs in that theater filmed way that was distractive in some points.Richard Widmark plays a thief who simply had to steal the wallet of a beautiful woman (Jean Peters) that was followed by the FBI in a case of espionage involving Communists who are looking for a secret film that was in the wallet (nature of it it's not revealed through the whole thing, what a mess!).
Helping all the characters, except the villain, there's Moe (Thelma Ritter, wonderful) an informant of the underground and criminal world who works for the police giving informations on burglar's in trade of money and sell some ties.The plot goes well until it slowed it down during the ending, very boring and with no excitement at all; and the most difficult task of all is to get really like the main characters, the tough thief and the girl who wants the film back trying to seduce this man, I couldn't care for both of them, both annoying and mean to each other.
"Pickup on South Street" is the quick and dirty story of Skip, a pickpocket, (Richard Widmark) and Candy (Jean Peters) a mule for commie spies.
You look at him and never forget for a minute that you are watching Richard Widmark, famous Hollywood noir actor.Jean Peters is the best thing about the movie.
This film was directed in the days when plot, character believability and theme actually mattered.Jean Peters, Widmark, and Thelma Ritter steal the spotlight.
Two major factors seem to have boasted this film's stature: The direction by Samuel Fuller and yet another great performance by Thelma Ritter, which earned her an Oscar-nomination, quite unusual for a small role in a B-movie.
The stellar direction by Fuller and Thelma Ritter's impressive performance, who easily walks away with the movie, make it watchable, but otherwise, quite an ordinary film-noir with a muddled and clichéd storyline and a political message that's mostly distracting and hardly interesting or intriguing.Camera Obscura --- 6/10.
It may be just 80 minutes long but this Sam Fuller written and directed film noir feature isn't short on good acting, memorable lines or great scenes.
What he doesn't know is that the woman herself is unknowingly carrying a top-secret patent planted on her by her boyfriend Joey, soon afterwards revealed as a Communist agent, keen to pass the secret onto his boss to get it out of the country and that she is being watched by police agents before Widmark's opportunism upsets their plans.Too early to be called a Cold War Thriller, nevertheless the red threat is painted lurid and large as we see Joey ruthlessly dispatch police informer Moe, sympathetically played in her broadest "Noo Yoik" accent by Thelma Ritter and later rough up his errant messenger, streetwalker Candy, played with verve by Jean Peters as he too seeks back the Magoffin film negative in the possession of Widmark.
It all climaxes in a no-holds barred drop-down fist-fight between McCoy and Joey on the New York subway as the former, who the whole movie long has been resisting the police's appeals to his patriotism, is inspired by Joey's two personal acts of Commie violence to finally take a side.Widmark is electric as usual as the smirking con-man who gradually develops a heart and conscience as the film progresses.
Due to its excessive brutality and sadistic beatings (especially the rough slapping around of pretty Candy), this rough'n'tough Crime/Thriller from 1953 ran into a lot of serious flak from the censors prior to its initial release.In order to appease the picky censor board's pointless grumblings, several violent scenes were quickly re-shot and even a "cutesy-pie", little happy ending was tacked onto the story for good measure.And because this film's theme dealt directly with Communist espionage on American turf, FBI agent, J.
Zanuck (then head of 20th Century Fox) about the unpatriotic attitude of Richard Widmark's lippy character and his "Are you waving the flag at me?" line.Of course (as you can well-imagine), the whole controversy that all of this silly attention stirred up prior to "Pickup's" initial release did absolute wonders as a means of advertising and, thus, selling it to the curious movie-going public, and generating big box-office bucks.Pickup's story deals with the serious events that are set into motion after the brazen pickpocket, Skip McCoy, steals a wallet being carried by pretty, little Candy.Unknown to both Skip and Candy, this innocent-looking wallet actually contains a strip of microfilm of top-secret information that was being delivered to a group of ruthless Communist spies operating within the seedy underworld of NYC.Filmed in stark b&w, this hard-edged Crime/Drama had a running time of only 80 minutes.
Not only was Fuller a well-known war correspondent, he also served in WWII, including Omaha Beach on D-Day. This movie provided him with a stellar cast: Richard Widmark as Skip, Jean Peters as Candy, Thelma Ritter as Moe, and Richard Kiley as Joey.
It is a story of the times as small-time pickpocket Skip, works his magic fingers on Candy's purse while they are facing each other on the subway.The real fun begins as we watch the police, the feds and the communists all trying to hunt him down.
This picture was a noir but the best acting was done by females - Jean Peters as a stereotypical slut-with-a-heart-of-gold and Thelma Ritter as a bag woman but called a 'stoolie' for identification purposes in the film.
From the opening scene aboard a crowded train where a ruthless pickpocket is at work (RICHARD WIDMARK) stealing from a woman's purse (JEAN PETERS), PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is relentlessly fascinating to watch.
This is a film with real villains- Joey and his Communist associates- but no real heroes.It is, in fact, the people on the wrong side of the law- Skip the pickpocket, Moe the paid informer and Candy the promiscuous good-time girl- who come closer to being heroes than any of the policemen or Government agents.
There are excellent performances in all three roles from Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter, who received a well-deserved "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Moe. It seems strange that Fuller turned down Ava Gardner for Candy on the grounds that she "looked too glamorous", as Peters looks absolutely stunning.
Small time pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) steals what he thinks is money from a beautiful woman's (Jean Peters) pocketbook.
Samuel Fuller brings his customary playful and stylish direction to this seedy, pulpy story and manages to create one of the undiscovered gems of 1950s cinema.Richard Widmark plays a petty thief tough guy (a role he perfected over the course of many movies), who snatches a young lady's (Jean Peters) wallet on a New York subway and with it a piece of much-wanted microfilm.
When violence occurs against her, we genuinely care about her well being, and it's typical of Fuller's renegade, ahead-of-his-time style that a happy ending is not necessarily a foregone conclusion.But the ultimate success of "Pickup on South Street" rests squarely on the world-weary shoulders of Thelma Ritter, who plays Moe, a feisty lady who makes money any way she can, whether that be selling neckties or acting as a police informant.
As director and writer Fuller gets the tough edge right and I particularly liked the camera movement – incredibly close to the characters at times, unafraid to shoot a scene with one character blocking the other, and with good urgent movement in the action sequences.Pickup is not a perfect film but it is a very strong one – and for sure much stronger than an anti-communist genre piece could have been.
Richard Widmark is a pickpocket who picks the wrong pocket in "Pickup on South Street," also starring Jean Peters, Richard Kiley, and Thelma Ritter.
Widmark is an expert pickpocket who steals Jean Peters' wallet on the subway while she's delivering film for her ex-boyfriend, Richard Kiley.
With the help of a street woman named Moe, who knows the technique of all the big "snitches," Widmark is quickly identified, and soon Peters and the police are separately after the film he's hiding."Pickup on South Street" captures the crowded, dingy subways of New York and its dark piers beautifully, and the performances are terrific.
***SPOILERS*** Post WWII Film-Noir spy drama set in New York City with three-time loser and just released pick-pocket artist Skip McCoy, Richard Widmark, lifting a purse that contained an important piece of microfilm off Candy, Jean Peters, on the New York City Subway.
Together they put an end to the commie spy ring that Joey was involved with.I really liked the theme song "Again" that Samuel Fuller used that was very effective as well as moving in the romantic scenes in the film between Skip and Candy..
Pickup On South Street is yet another of cult director Sam Fuller's takes on the Cold War, as pickpocket Richard Widmark steals some microfilm that contains information vital to the Communists (who are, naturally, everywhere), who, along with the FBI, are looking for Widmark, who is not, as one might imagine, a very patriotic fellow.
This is a strangely intense, violent film, done on a medium budget, featuring fine acting by Widmark, leading lady Jean Peters, and especially character actress Thelma Ritter, who has never been better than she is here.
Though (unexpectedly) prone to melodrama, and with just a hint of anti-Communist propaganda, 'Pickup on South Street' is a strong film noir that succeeds most outstandingly in its evocation of setting  the underground of New York City.When just-out-of-prison pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) snags the purse of a woman on the subway (Jean Peters), he pockets more than he'd originally bargained for.
The opening scene on the train is the film's finest, as McCoy breathlessly and silently fishes around in his victim's hand bag, recalling Bresson's 'Pickpocket (1959).' Thelma Ritter is terrific as a tired street-woman who'll peddle information to anybody willing to pay for it (though, of course, she draws the line at Commies).
A gritty dark movie directed by by Sam Fuller leads the viewer through a winding plot after a pickpocket steals and intercepts microfilm containing sensitive information from Candy, played by Jean Peters, destined to be shared by communist spies.
Arrogant smart aleck pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) really picks on the wrong purse when he snatches a wallet from Candy (Jean Peters).
Film Noir Meets Cold War. A pickpocket (Richard Widmark) unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.In August 1952, the script was deemed unacceptable by the Production Code, by reasons of "excessive brutality and sadistic beatings, of both men and women." The committee also expressed disdain for the vicious beating of the character "Candy", on the part of "Joey." Apparently we had slid backwards in the 1950s, as such things would have been fine a decade earlier.The French release of the movie removed any reference to spies and microfilm in the translation.
On a crowded New York City subway, petty pickpocket Richard Widmark (as Skip McCoy) sneaks his fingers into the purse of pretty part-time prostitute Jean Peters (as Candy).
Joe MacDonald's photography is stylish.******* Pickup on South Street (5/29/53) Samuel Fuller ~ Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Richard Kiley.
She has enriched so many films and in almost every one becomes a sort of Greek Chorus; it's Bette Davis we watch in All About Eve, but it's Thelma that backgrounds the commentary--whether it's an acidic riposte to Eve's sad story of theatrical neglect or the plethora of furs on the bed--"looks like a dead animal act." Ritter was nominated many times for an Oscar, and should have won in this film for her worn-out informer who is "just doing her job" in this tightly-knit film noir.It's Jean Peters who is perhaps the titular star, surprisingly rich as a rather confused femme fatale who falls for Richard Widmark's hard-edged, nervous pickpocket, living on the water in a strange little coop where he keeps his treasures on a rope in the water.
Samuel Fuller's style of directing and the cinematography by Joseph MacDonald are excellent and there are many scenes which through their composition and lighting produce a strong sense of mood and atmosphere.Ace pickpocket and repeat offender Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) gets into deep water when he steals a wallet from a young woman named Candy (Jean Peters) on the New York subway.
Basically recently released crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) is back to his old habits when he pickpockets the purse of Candy (Jean Peters) in a crowded subway.
This film is a spicy little piece of film-making from Sam Fuller which gives Richard Widmark the chance to show of some of his best, most edgy acting in the role of Skip McCoy, a small-time thief who stumbles onto a military secret while picking beautiful Candy's (Jean Peters) pocket on a crowded bus.
Wonderful film with Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Oscar nominee Thelma Ritter really shine.