A skid row pickpocket acquires a top-secret microfilm. He stumbles onto a plot to sell military secrets and is now the target in a world of intrigue and espionage.
This film noir classic plays on America's paranoia about a Communist takeover in the 1950s.
Dwelling in a neon-lit nightscape are: a pickpocket, Skip McCoy; an abused dame, Candy; a seen-it-all stoolie, Moe; Joey, Candy's violent boyfriend and Communist plotter; shifty G-Men; cynical cops; and a whole nest of vipers in fedoras and trenchcoats.
Joey forces Candy to deliver a secret package for him. Then Skip snatches Candy's purse and inadvertently takes a cryptic film that some underground Reds have stolen. A pair of Feds tracking the film's whereabouts witness the pickpocket and close in on him. But Skip first considers cutting a deal with the Communists.
Then he realizes that several parties are interested in the film -- and some are even willing to kill for it!
Additional cast: Henry Slate (MacGregor); Harry Carter (Dietrich); Stuart Randall (Police Commissioner); Frank Kumagi (Lum); Victor Perry (Lightning Louie); George Berkeley (Customer); Emmett Lynn (Sandwich Man); Maurice Samuels (Peddler); Jay Loftlin (Librarian); and Virginia Carroll (Nurse).
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0 - English
Additional Release Material:
Trailers
Interviews: Sam Fuller - Director
Text/Photo Galleries:
Illustrated Biographical Essay on Fuller by Jeb Brody
Stills Gallery of Photos, Posters, Lobby Cards, and Original Paintings by Russell Christian
Additional Products:
Booklet
Director of Photography
Joseph MacDonald: Cinematographer
Production Designer
George Patrick: Art Director
Production Designer
Lyle Wheeler: Art Director
Source Writer
Dwight Taylor: Screenwriter
Music Director
Lionel Newman: Composer/Music Director
Review 1:
"...A major film noir classic....Love those Fuller close-ups..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
Source: USA Today
p.3D 04/05/1991
Review 2:
"Samuel Fuller's sweaty 1953 noir speedball PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET gets the Criterion treatment and it plays like a poison pen letter from the past."
Source: Film Comment
p.76 03/01/2004
Review 3:
"Sam Fuller's explosive pulp classic, a red-menace thriller, pitched near hysteria from start to finish….Definitive Fuller, definitive noir."
Source: Uncut
p.135 09/01/2004
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