"The Pick-Up" (1968) is considered one of the last of the "roughies," a term for exploitation films that contained violence toward women. While there certainly is that in this picture, I think it plays more like a film noir from the underground. In this movie, the action is played out in seedy hotels, dusty highways, cramped apartment and the glitz of Vegas at night. The story concerns two couriers off to L.A. with a shipment of cash. Along the way, they pick up two seemingly stranded girls and take them to a motel room for sex. The girls steal the money and split. The men trail them to a hotel room and torture them. See, there's a cigar-chewing mob boss (Bob Cresse, who was a producer himself, I believe) who will whack them if they don't get the money back, and there's another mob hand (played in a showy performance by exploitation producer David Friedman) who's got his own agenda. And it all ends up in the most ironic wrap-ups you'll ever see. (SEE SPOILER.) The picture is slow in spots, particularly during the numerous sex scenes, but the realistically sleazy atmosphere keeps your attention throughout. And for the sadists, there's some nasty just desserts for the women involving whippings, water torture, and most graphic of all, nipple electrocution. But this is only a small part of the picture. The characters and the low-down dirty atmosphere take up the rest. By no means am I saying that this is a work of art, but it does have its qualities. (SPOILER ALERT: The two girls are mercilessly tortured, yet they end up marrying the two men and having kids! How's that for irony? But it is only part of the story, trust me.)
Review of The Pick-Up
