PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET

This cast, directed by Sam Fuller, is worth the price of admission alone. Thelma Ritter was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Richard Widmark continued to polish his bad-boy noir credentials playing a petty pickpocket suddenly ensnarled with dangerously beautiful Jean Peters and a lethal foreign spy ring. Perhaps the best of the anti-Communist film noirs. Intrigue, a rough-and-tumble love affair, and gritty action in that urban underbelly. A noir film that has gone up in critical esteem over the last generation.

The script was originally deemed unacceptable by the Production Code Administration by reason of “excessive brutality and sadistic beatings, of both men and women,” including a nasty thrashing of lead character “Candy” (Peters). The script was revised and the violence toned down from brutal to excessive.

Betty Grable was the original front runner for the Jean Peters role but her insistence on doing a song and dance number amid the action nixed the role.