Pickup on South Street
Short description
In New York City, a seasoned pickpocket named Skip McCoy works the subway crowds and lives quietly in a shack by the waterfront. He already has three arrests behind him, and another would likely mean prison for life. When he lifts a wallet from a woman called Candy, he has no idea what he has taken: a strip of microfilm carrying secret information meant for a Communist spy ring. Candy herself was only acting as a courier and did not know what she was carrying. FBI agents watching her saw the theft but lost Skip in the crowd. Her former boyfriend Joey, who arranged the delivery, pressures her to track the thief down, while the authorities also work to identify him. Candy soon finds Skip, and the two are drawn together as the people hunting the microfilm close in on them both.
Samuel Fuller wrote the screenplay and directed, following Park Row from the previous year; Forty Guns, Shock Corridor, The Naked Kiss, The Big Red One and White Dog came later in his career. Richard Widmark plays Skip, with Jean Peters as Candy, Thelma Ritter as Moe Williams, Murvyn Vye as Captain Dan Tiger, Richard Kiley as Joey and Willis Bouchey as Zara. Jules Schermer produced for 20th Century Fox, with 33 credited cast members.
The film rates 7.6 on IMDb from 18,000 votes and 7.4 on TMDB from 333, while critics give it 8 out of 10 from 40 reviews, placing critical opinion slightly above the general audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- After a private preview of the film, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover demanded a meeting with 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck and the film's director/screenwriter Samuel Fuller. Hoover was outraged by the unpatriotic behavior of the character played by Richard Widmark, even after the character realized he was dealing with communists. Fuller refused to make any changes to the film, and Zanuck supported him. Their refusal ended the era of cooperation between the film company and the FBI.
- Marilyn Monroe attended the rehearsals and screen tests. Director and screenwriter Samuel Fuller liked her in general, but he decided that she was "too sensual" for the role of Candy.
- As mentioned in Samuel Fuller's autobiography (published in 2002), Betty Grable vied for the role of Candy, demanding that a dance scene for her character be included in the film. Fuller categorically refused. Grable eventually agreed to film without the dance number, but by that time, Fuller was already rehearsing the role with Gene Peters, who ultimately played Candy.
- Darryl F. Zanuck introduced director and screenwriter Samuel Fuller, who was under contract with 20th Century Fox at the time, to a script by Dwight Taylor about a female lawyer who defends a criminal (a murderer) and falls in love with him. Fuller generally liked the idea. He asked Zanuck if he could write his own screenplay about a petty criminal and his girlfriend. He even suggested a title for the future film: 'The Pickpocket.' Zanuck felt that 'Pickpocket' sounded too European, so Fuller, a former crime reporter, suggested changing the title to 'The Street with No Name.' Shortly thereafter, Fuller spoke with a New York City police detective, upon whom he based the police captain (played in the film by Merwin Wise) with all his virtues and flaws, including having his salary docked for six months for beating a suspect.
- The film's script was rejected twice for excessive violence displayed by characters of both genders, which contradicted the so-called 'Hays Code' (the ethical code for Hollywood film production that regulated movie content).
- Director and screenwriter Samuel Fuller saw Gene Peters in the studio cafeteria and immediately cast her in the role of Candy.
- When the film was being prepared for release in France, the communists in the script were replaced by drug dealers, just in case.
- The filmmakers had to reshoot the episode in which the characters played by Jean Peters and Richard Kiley search each other at the insistence of censors, who decided that the scene was too explicit and naturalistic.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
