Movie Review: Pickup On South Street (1953)

A Cold War espionage film noir, Pickup On South Street packs thrills, romance and complex characters into the story of a pickpocket who unwittingly disrupts a communist spy operation.

On a busy subway train in New York City, courier Candy (Jean Peters) has her wallet stolen by professional pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark). The theft is spotted by investigators tracking Candy, who is a mostly clueless courier working for ex-boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley), a member of a communist spy ring. Her wallet contains a valuable stolen microfiche, and now Skip is the most wanted man in the city.

Police agents seek the help of dotty underworld informer Moe (Thelma Ritter) to identify and locate Skip, while Candy uses her own contacts to find his riverfront shack. Skip now realizes he is in possession of valuable merchandise and can sell to the highest bidder, if he can stay alive. But a simmering romance ignites between him and Candy, complicating all agendas.

An uncompromising story of treason crashing upon the rocks of passionate individual desires, Pickup On South Street combines a Cold War-inspired national security thriller with intimate portraits of small people caught up in big events. Writer and director Samuel Fuller jams three character studies into 80 minutes, and still allows time for soul searching, brutality, murder and expertly crafted moments of devious suspense.

Secondary people on the margins of other films here take centre stage. Skip is cocky, sarcastic and one misstep away from lifelong incarceration. Attracting the attention of a communist ring and police investigators is the last thing he needs. And yet he recognizes the opportunity of a lifetime when he sees it, but pesky romantic feelings towards Candy start to interfere. Meanwhile she proves more resourceful and resilient than an average underworld courier, first to find Skip then understand their joint predicament. At personal cost she buys them both just enough time to manoeuver.

And finally, and most poignant, is the stoolie Moe. In many ways Pickup On South Street is the story of the eccentric informer, surviving by selling neckties for $1 and information for whatever amount she can extract from any buyer on either side of the law. Only Moe cares about Moe, and she is deeply aware how disposable and irrelevant she is. Ultimately she will have to decide if any cause actually matters more than a few crumpled bills thrown her way.

Apart from the characters, Fuller packs the film with violence, and the brutality towards women is sometimes difficult to stomach. Elsewhere suspense takes over, including a clever interlude involving a dumbwaiter.

Despite the short length some sections do drag, the romance between Skip and Candy laboriously reaching a slow boil, and the climax features a few unlikely contortions towards a brighter-than-needed ending.

But Fuller leans on his dream cast to get through the lethargic sections, and intense close-ups are rewarded with career highlights. Richard Widmark is smooth and slick, Jean Peters seductive and sly, and Thelma Ritter sad and soulful.

Pickup On South Street features one stolen wallet and three unforgettable lives changed forever.

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Movie Review: Niagara (1953)

A film noir featuring stunning scenery and Marilyn Monroe's first starring role, Niagara offers luscious visuals but suffers from underdeveloped characters and a distracted crime story.

Polly and Ray Cutler (Jean Peters and Max Showalter, credited as Casey Adams) head to the scenic Canadian side of Niagara Falls for a delayed honeymoon. At the motel they meet troubled couple Rose and George Loomis (Monroe and Joseph Cotten). George has spent time at an army mental hospital and remains agitated. Rose is bored with her husband and has no hesitation flaunting her sexuality.

As the Cutlers enjoy the local tourist attractions they stumble upon Rose carrying on an illicit affair with the hunky Patrick (Richard Allan). Polly feels sorry for George and reaches out to offer support. Rose has a nefarious plan in mind to move on with her life, but her plot will unexpectedly unravel, leaving Polly in the middle of churning danger.

The first film to feature Marilyn Monroe as the primary star name, Niagara shamelessly showcases both the famous falls and Ms. Monroe's figure. The murder-most-foul plot does contain intriguing nuggets including unresolved mental health and infatuation issues. But the narrative takes a back seat as director Henry Hathaway is preoccupied with finding the best angles to capture the forceful waterfalls and his force-of-nature star.

This includes celebrating her derriere and hip-swaying walk in a famous scene that lingers as Monroe sashays away from the camera. Hathaway also dresses - and undresses - his star in a series of legendary outfits, pushing 1953 cinematic boundaries and cannonballing Monroe into superstardom as the world's premier sex symbol.

Niagara's visual objectives demand vibrant exposition, and so this is a film noir bursting with colour. Hathaway plays with window blind shadows creating prison stripes and a few moments of suspense, but otherwise allows Rose's femme fatale and her evil intentions to stand alone against the rather incongruous backdrop of spectacular imagery.

With attention focused elsewhere, the real shadow falls on the wholesome characters of Polly and Ray. Supposedly the entryway into the story, they are reduced to passive observers as the plot unfolds. Ray is a dorky businessman oblivious to the evil brewing in the cabin next door, and he mainly represents the red-blooded male exhibiting helpless tongue-hanging-out lust at Monroe's sensuality. Meanwhile the attempts to insert Polly into the swirl of tension are only partially successful, and she also has to tolerate Ray's infantile attempts to overtly glamourize her once he's exposed to the Rose calibre of sexuality.

The conniving Rose and troubled George are by far the more interesting characters, but they are not provided sufficient context to harbour sympathy. The background of George's mental health troubles deserved a deeper dive than afforded in the script co-written by producer Charles Brackett.

Hathaway's best Hitchcockian sequence comes courtesy of a bell tower and a suspenseful chase up the stairs serving as a build-up to an act of sorrowful revenge followed by unexpected entrapment. Niagara is frustratingly sprinkled with moments of promise, but drenched by a near-exploitive yet star-making agenda.

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