Rotten
Pickup for the most part falls flat on its face and borders on presumably unintended, comedy.
Variety Staff, Variety
Pickup on South Street
How the law took a chance on a B-girl … and won!
1953 · 1h 20m · APPROVED
Crime, Thriller
Directed by
Samuel Fuller
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Pickup on South Street
Overview
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.
Director and cast
- Samuel Fuller Director
- Richard Widmark as Skip McCoy
- Jean Peters as Candy
- Thelma Ritter as Moe Williams
- Murvyn Vye as Captain Dan Tiger
- Richard Kiley as Joey
- Willis Bouchey as Zara
- Milburn Stone as Detective Winoki
- Parley Baer as Headquarters Communist in Chair (uncredited)
- Chet Brandenburg as Fight Spectator (uncredited)
- Frank Kumagai as Lum (uncredited)
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
90%
Tomatometer
Rotten
Sam Fuller, who wrote it and directed, appears to have been more concerned with firing a barrage of sensations than with telling a story to be believed.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh
It isn't his best, but this 1953 feature may be the archetypal Sam Fuller film, a condensation of his themes and techniques with the steam still rising.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh
Perhaps finally flawed by its overt political assumptions, but the film remains a desperate kind of masterpiece.
Time Out
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