Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Pickup Alley Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 22, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Noir Archive Volume 3: 1956-1960.

Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment continue their deep dive into what might be thought of as the substratum of film noir with this third collection culled from the Columbia catalog. The fact that this latest offering supposedly spans the years of 1956 through 1960 may give some indication of just how deep this particular dive is, since many film fans will probably (rightly or wrongly) feel like the late fifties and first year of the sixties are decidedly past the heyday of film noir. (That "supposedly" is in the previous sentence because the earliest actual release date for the films in this set seems to actually be 1957, not 1956, which perhaps makes my point even better.) Still, as with the first two collections, there are some really interesting films in this set, and genre aficionados will most likely find at least a few titles in this set, including some more British productions, that may well spark interest.

For an overview of the previous two releases in this series, please click on the following review links (which, like this one, will contain links of their own pointing to reviews of the individual films in the set):

Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954 Blu- ray review

Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956 Blu- ray review

Pickup Alley is another British enterprise, along with some others in this set, and it also has the linking attribute of starring Victor Mature, who is on hand here in the third volume of Noir Archive in other films as well. This is another film that, kind of like The Shadow on the Window (also included in this set), starts with a great hook but then kind of dissipates into something at least a bit more standard. A frantic woman attempts to reach FBI agent Charles Sturgis (Victor Mature) by telephone, but is murdered for her trouble. It turns out she was Sturgis’ sister, and a former FBI agent herself, with the siblings both on the hunt for arch villain Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), a chameleon of sorts whose ability to disguise himself has put him beyond the reach of Interpol, which is after him for his drug smuggling activities. McNally has a rather curvaceous “mule” in the form of Gina Broger (Anita Ekberg), and after she is forced to kill one of McNally’s henchmen, McNally has a seemingly unbreakable hold over her. Needless to say, Sturgis and Broger end up connecting, and the film goes to some lengths to fitfully try to develop suspense as to whether they will be able to bring McNally to justice. There's a decently "European" feel to the setting here, and Mature and Ekberg are both fine in the leads, but this film belongs squarely to Trevor Howard, who is both coolly menacing and archly suave as the sinister McNally.

Pickup Alley Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pickup Alley is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This Cinemascope production is one of the nicer looking transfers in this set, one which promotes well above average detail levels most of the time, and which exhibits less frequent age related wear and tear. There are still some issues with contrast, and selected sequences have a kind of gray undertone to them that keeps blacks from completely impressing. There are also a couple of brief brightness flashes, as well as a noticeably softer look in some of the interrogation sequences. My score is 3.75.

Pickup Alley Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This is the rare offering in this set where some recurrent issues with audio may bother some listeners. While the DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix supports dialogue and effects perfectly well, noticeable distortion is evident in some of the music, notably (no pun intended) in just the first few seconds of the credits (as can often be the case), but later in a nightclub sequence where a singer croons a song. Other than that distortion, the rest of the track sounds fine, and the issues with the music may in fact not overly bother some. My score is 3.25.

Pickup Alley Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None of the three discs in this set feature any supplements.

Pickup Alley Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is a frankly middling noir that is brought fitfully to life by the reptilian performance by Trevor Howard as Frank McNally. While Sturgis is understandably distraught over the early loss of his sister, the film doesn't really ever go the "full noir" in terms of showing the moral degradation of a focal character. McNally is already well down that particular path, and Sturgis is presented as a stolid officer of the law, meaning that this story really plays out more in terms of a traditional crime thriller than a more shaded noir offering. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.