Are you waving the flag at me?

***** Pickup on South Street (1953)

Now this is noir. Moral ambiguity, not-so-subtle sexual overtones, and a prevailing cynicism shared among fraught characters struggling to make ends meet in a bleak world. If you're new to the genre, Double Indemnity is where to start but you should definitely pick up Pickup on South Street (corny pun, I know, but I couldn't resist) because it's a real gem that belongs in any canon of great film noir.

I didn't quite know what to expect of this film. I read a little about Sam Fuller beforehand and decided to watch this film because it came highly recommended by a friend. After the first four minutes I knew I was watching something special - no dialogue is spoken, but each shot is so perfectly constructed in the opening scene that it sets the plot in motion regardless. "Don't talk about it," Sam Fuller once said in an interview. "Show it. Two words." Strong words of advice, and especially true because film is a visual medium. Everything you need to know about screen left, screen right, eyeline matching, closeups, wide angles and panning can be discovered in the opening scene.



Set during the peak of the Red Scare, the story centers on Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), a lowly pickpocket who unwittingly steals a piece of film that is vital to both federal and Communist agents. Though he's harassed by local authorities to turn the film over (and in doing so, turn himself over to a life sentence in prison), he remains unfazed and coolly thumbs his nose at his persecutors. When one agent challenges McCoy's sense of loyalty and patriotism, McCoy snarls back, "Are you waving the flag at me?" Even before I watched Fuller's interview I was startled by the gutsy line, given its context.



It takes some major cojones to make a movie in the 1950s about a thief who's largely indifferent to his country's fervid struggle against the evils of Communism. The only sympathetic (pathetic is more like it) character in the film is an informant named Moe (Thelma Ritter) who tries to sell enough handmade ties and police information so she can buy a tombstone and plot of land for her grave. Morbid, yes, but it's completely distinctive of the tone of hopelessness and despair that is prevalent in film noir. The scene where she laments about her lonesome and wearied life is especially touching and reminiscent of the time in Hollywood when great character actors lit up the screen.

There are other treasures in Sam Fuller's filmography that I've yet to discover and Pickup on South Street is definitely a classic. A must see for anyone who loves noir.