Film Still

Pickup on South Street

Samuel Fuller

United States

1953

80 minutes

Black and White

1.33:1

English

224

Synopsis

Petty crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has his eyes fixed on the big score. When the cocky three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy (Jean Peters), he finds a haul bigger than he could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. secrets. Tailed by manipulative Feds and the unwitting courier’s Communist puppeteers, Skip and Candy find themselves in a precarious gambit that pits greed against redemption, Right versus Red, and passion against self-preservation. With its dazzling cast and director Samuel Fuller’s signature raw energy and hardboiled repartee, Pickup on South Street is a true film noir classic by one of America’s most passionate cinematic craftsmen.

Cast

Skip McCoyRichard Widmark
CandyJean Peters
MoeThelma Ritter
Captain Dan TigerMurvyn Vye
JoeyRichard Kiley
ZaraWillis B. Bouchey
WinokiMilburn Stone
MacGregorHenry Slate
Lightning LouieVictor Perry

Credits

DirectorSamuel Fuller
ProducerJules Schermer
CinematographyJoseph MacDonald
ScreenplaySamuel Fuller
From a story byDwight Taylor
Director of photographyJoe MacDonald
MusicLeigh Harline
Musical directionLionel Newman
Art directionLyle Wheeler and George Patrick
Set decorationAl Orenbach
Film editorNick De Maggio
Wardrobe directionCharles Le Maire
Costumes designed byTravilla
OrchestrationEdward Powell
Makeup artistBen Nye
Special photographic effectsRay Kellogg
SoundWinston H. Leverett

Disc Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
  • Exclusive interview with the late Samuel Fuller, made by renowned film critic Richard Schickel
  • Excerpts from the Cinéma Cinémas series with Fuller discussing the making of the film
  • Illustrated biographical essay on Fuller by Jeb Brody (Scenario, Print magazines)
  • Stills gallery of photos, posters, lobby cards, and original paintings by noted artist Russell Christian (The New York Times, The New Yorker)
  • Trailers for Pickup on South Street and other Fuller features
  • Booklet including excerpts from Fuller’s award-winning autobiography A Third Face, featuring Martin Scorsese’s introduction and Fuller on Pickup on South Street, plus a new essay by acclaimed cultural historian Luc Sante (Low Life, Evidence)
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

From the Current

SAM FULLER, “THE COMPLETE AUTEUR”

Apr 19, 2009

“Why Sam Fuller?” a new essay by Tag Gallagher, in the latest issue of Senses of Cinema, asks. Aficionados might wonder, why even ask? But perhaps they forget that the two-fisted termite art of this...

Me and Sam Fuller

by Lisa Dombrowski Dec 29, 2008

It is a good time to belong to the cult of Fuller. Those of us who consider ourselves members never forget our moment of induction. Some enlisted when his films first hit the screen—lucky enough to catch The Steel Helmet in a shabby downtown theater, or Forty Guns at a...

Pickup on South Street:
Extra! Pickpocket Foils Doom Plot!

by Luc Sante Feb 16, 2004

Samuel Fuller had ink in his veins, just like the hero of his 1952 newspaper epic, Park Row. After all, he started working as a copy boy when he was fourteen or so, and at seventeen he was the youngest crime reporter in the country, employed by the most daring and scurrilous tabloid...

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DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $29.95

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