Pickup on South Street

In Sam Fuller‘s 1953 paean to the New York City underworld,pickpocket Skip McCoy (the great Richard Widmark) accidentally nabs the wrongwallet-one containing microfilm that the Commies are hungry to get theirmitts on. Soon the cops, the feds, and the Reds are all out to get Skip and histreasure. In Pickup on South Street, the director drags us by the scruff of theneck, hauling us into the netherworld of dripping docks, stifling tenements,and the cramped offices of the underpaid and often brutal cops. But he alsoshows a remarkable empathy for the plight of his characters. Usually a brute,Fuller seems to have found his muse in character actress Thelma Ritter thistime around. Pay close attention to her character’s death scene. As hercharacter, Moe, faces her killer hiding in the shadows, she does not tremble orcry for help; rather, she shrugs off the irony of this cruel world as shereaches for a weary and spectacular grace. A masterpiece.

Parkway Theater, 4814 ChicagoAve. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-3030.