Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Pickup on South Street Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 20, 2015

Sam Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" (1953) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; video interview with critic Kent Jones; video interview with writer and film historian Francois Guerif; and archival video interview with Sam Fuller. The release also arrives with a 36-page booklet featuring writing by Sam Fuller archival interviews, and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"Stop using your hands, Skip, and... start using your head. The kid loves you."

In an overcrowded subway, arrogant thief Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark, The Trap, Yellow Sky) snatches the purse of naive ex-prostitute Candy (Jean Peters, Viva Zapata!, Niagara), who is on her way to deliver a stolen microfilm with some government secrets to her shady boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley, The Sniper). This confuses FBI agent Zara (Willis B. Bouchey, The Big Heat), who has been tailing her, and forces him to seek the assistance of Captain Tiger (Murvyn Vye, River of No Return), who promptly summons his invaluable informer Moe (Thelma Ritter, All About Eve, Pillow Talk), a bubbly lady who knows all the top cannons in the city. Moe then tells Captain Tiger and Zara that Skip has Candy’s purse.

The cops track down Skip, but decide to wait until Candy gets the microfilm from him and hands it to Joey so that they can arrest him. Shortly after, Candy meets Skip and falls madly in love with him. Assuming that Candy is acting up so that she can get the microfilm and get paid big bucks for her services, Skip rejects her. But when Joey beats her up, something inside him snaps and he vows to make him suffer.

There are a number of observations in the film that are clearly meant to raise awareness of the dangers of the Red Menace that sound awfully silly now. It is true that they make the film look rather exotic, but the loose sense of paranoia clearly hurts its credibility.

Thankfully, Sam Fuller’s adaptation of Dwight Taylor’s story also leaves plenty of room for old-fashioned noir realism. Skip is a genuinely unsympathetic thief who could not care less about communist spies and patriots who are willing to die for their country. All he wants is to get paid and then go some place quiet and enjoy life. If Candy truly loves him, she can be part of his plan, but it won’t be the end of the world if he had to dump her and walk away alone.

Moe, the informer, also prefers cash to friendship, and patriotism means nothing to her. She is alone in a jungle where cash is king. So, the more she can get for her services, the better.

Candy is also out to get paid -- at least until she meets Skip. Then she is forced to improvise and make sure that she pleases her “old lady” and saves the man she has fallen in love with. It isn’t easy because Skip does not trust her and the cops know that she isn’t as innocent as she looks.

The film can be very cynical and at times seriously intimidating. For example, the sequence in which Joey goes berserk and hurts Candy is quite difficult to watch. Also, there is something rather disturbing in the manner in which the cops profile Skip. The few things they say and the quick decisions they make reveal that anyone can become a target if they decide that they need one.

The leads are outstanding. Widmark is as electrifying as he is in Jules Dassin’s Night and the City and Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets. Peters looks appropriately intense at first and brittle after she decides to help the thief. Ritter is unforgettable as the bubbly but jaded stoolie.

Joseph McDonald’s (My Darling Clementine) superb lensing gives the film a lush noir appearance that at times makes it look a lot more elegant than it was probably intended to be. The few sequences in which Candy visits Skip’s place, in particular, look superb.

The film’s dramatic score was created by Oscar-winning composer Leigh Harline (Pinocchio, Johnny Come Lately).

Pickup on South Street Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a new, very strong 4K restoration and unsurprisingly the film looks beautiful in high-definition. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the close-ups boast striking depth and clarity, making it incredibly easy to see even exceptionally small details (see screencaptures #2 and 7). It is the darker footage, however, that shows the major improvements the new restoration has introduced -- shadow definition is vastly superior and as a result the areas of the film that used to look flat (on DVD) now have wonderful depth (see screencaptures #17 and 18). Furthermore, there is an entirely new range of nuanced grays and blacks that give the film a richer and ultimately far better balanced appearance. Grain is well distributed and resolved. Some careful grain adjustments have been performed, but there are no troubling anomalies. Also, there are no traces of sharpening corrections. This being said, there are select scenes where some density fluctuations affect clarity and sharpness, but it is very easy to tell that they are not a byproduct of compromising digital work (examples can be seen in screencaptures #3 and 14). There are no serious stability issues. Finally, there are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, or stains to report in our review. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Pickup on South Street Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

It is very easy to tell that the audio has been fully remastered. During the opening credits the music has excellent depth and there are absolutely no high-frequency distortions. Separation is also excellent and as a result random sounds and noises are very easy to identify (listen to the moving water as Jean Peters approaches Richard Widmark around the 37-minute mark). Clicks, thumps, background hiss, and crackle have been carefully removed. Finally, there are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in our review.

Pickup on South Street Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Pickup on South Street. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Kent Jones - in this video interview, critic Kent Jones explains how he discovered Sam Fuller's work, and discusses the balance between style and realism in Pickup on South Street, its anti-Communist overtones and why they are easy to ignore, the main conflicts in the film, the backgrounds and legacies of the principal actors, etc. In English, not subtitled. (32 min).

• Francois Guerif - in this video interview, writer and film historian Francois Guerif discusses the origin of film noir and its popularity between 1940 and 1950, the most prominent themes and political overtones in classic noir films, Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street and manner in which he approached the noir genre, the original story by Dwight Taylor that inspired the film, etc. In French, with optional English subtitles. (24 min).

• Samuel Fuller - in this archival French program, the American director explains how different sequences from Pickup on South Street were shot. The program was produced by Andre S. Labarthe and Dominique Rahourdin. In English, with printed yellow French subtitles. (12 min).

• Booklet - 36-page booklet featuring writing by Sam Fuller archival interviews, and more.

Pickup on South Street Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An arrogant thief accidentally steals a microfilm with some government secrets and then gets involved with federal agents, communist spies and a bubbly stoolie in Sam Fuller's intense thriller Pickup on South Street. The film has been recently restored in 4K by Twentieth Century Fox and looks very beautiful in high-definition. Hopefully, Criterion will soon upgrade their DVD release in the United States. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.