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Pickup on South Street (1953)

APPROVED  80 min  -  Film-Noir | Thriller   -  1 August 1953 (Japan)
7.9
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Ratings: 7.9/10 from 5,094 users  
Reviews: 70 user | 52 critic

A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writers:

Samuel Fuller (screenplay), Dwight Taylor (story)
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
Richard Widmark ...
Jean Peters Jean Peters ...
Thelma Ritter ...
Murvyn Vye Murvyn Vye ...
Captain Dan Tiger
Richard Kiley ...
Willis Bouchey Willis Bouchey ...
Zara (as Willis B. Bouchey)
Milburn Stone Milburn Stone ...
Detective Winoki
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Storyline

On a crowded subway, Skip McCoy picks the purse of Candy. Among his take, although he does not know it at the time, is a piece of top-secret microfilm that was being passed by Candy's consort, a Communist agent. Candy discovers the whereabouts of the film through Moe Williams, a police informer. She attempts to seduce McCoy to recover the film. She fails to get back the film and falls in love with him. The desperate agent exterminates Moe and savagely beats Candy. McCoy, now goaded into action, confronts the agent in a particularly brutal fight in a subway. Written by alfiehitchie  

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

Communist | Microfilm | Purse | Subway | Police  | See more »

Taglines:

How the law took a chance on a B-girl... and won!

Genres:

Film-Noir | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

(Japan) See more »

Also Known As:

Lange Finger - Harte Fäuste See more »

Company Credits

Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

 | Spain: (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See full technical specs »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on April 5, 1954 with Thelma Ritter reprising her film role. See more »

Goofs

Factual errors: When Skip gets off a subway train at the 33rd street station, he is getting off of an IND line R-1 train. There is no 33rd street station on any IND line. The only 33rd street station is on the Lexington Ave Line(today known as the #6 train). The Lexington Ave line is a branch of the IRT line and did not use the R-1 cars. They used the Low V cars. An R-1 car was too wide and would not fit on to the IRT tracks See more »

Quotes

Candy: You've been recommended as the best pickpocket stoolie in the business.
Moe Williams: What kind of talk is that, calling me a stoolie? I was brought up to report any injustice to the police authority. I call that being a solid citizen.
Candy: But you get paid for it.
Moe Williams: You gonna knock it?
See more »

Connections

Featured in The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller (2002) See more »

Soundtracks

"Again"
(uncredited)
Music by Lionel Newman
Played occasionally in the score See more »