My personal favorite Noir
As a big Film Noir fan I just re-watched Pickup for the umpteenth time and always come to the same conclusion in the end: I love this movie. For me it has everything a Noir film should have.
First, the cinematography is flawless and stunning (Criterion beautifully restored this film). The typical black and white shadow photography is right there, landscapes cloaked in shadows, humans haloed in light, cynical outlook on life, hard-boiled characters, snappy dialogue...
The excellent opening scene (just like the dumbwaiter scene) is a lesson in Noir. It starts in the subway where the pickpocket moves in beside the girl. At first it feels like two people on a very intimate rendezvous. The scene is very ambiguous and strangely sexual until the viewer notices that the pickpocket is only after the girl's money.
Some viewers have noted that Pickup cannot possibly be Noir because it has a happy ending. Nothing could be further from the truth. About 1/4 to 1/3 of Noir movies have a happy or at least hopeful ending. Viewers seem to demand being depressed at the end of a Noir.
An unhappy ending does not have to be viewed as inherently superior in Noir, just as the Hayes code cannot be held responsible for every supposedly tacked-on happy ending.
There are of course films where the material clearly demanded a more downbeat ending than was provided, but if a film-maker saw a movie as being a movie about redemption and not only as a film noir crime drama then a happy ending was quite reasonable. Which is definitively the case with Pickup. Both the floozy and the crook do not care about anything or anybody else in the beginning of the movie, but have become human beings by the end of the movie.
Also, just because Skip and Candy leave the precinct together happily does not mean they ride off into the sunset together forever. It is very doubtful that they will change their ways completely.
Second, I absolutely adore the coupling of Peters and Widmark. They are sizzling and the sexual chemistry between those two is absolutely electric. Their love scenes are very sensuous and steamy.
What surprises me most about some of the reviews I've read here is that people seem to bemoan the fact that Candy and Skip supposedly fall in love instantly after she goes to his shack the first. They DON'T. At all. What film are you all watching if you think it's love at first sight?
They are both playing each other. Candy needs desperately to get her purse back, Skip is trying to figure out what is so important about the purse. Candy is quite willing to do whatever it takes to further that goal. She say "I've kissed a lot of guys" which is code speak for she's a prostitute. And even if she's not a professional prostitute she is at least a floozy who does a lot more than just bat her eye lashes at guys if there's a profit in it.
Love is not even mentioned. Don't forget that the words love and romance were a stand-in for sex. What it was though is LUST at first sight, and that shouldn't surprise anyone. Both are sexy and I personally wished I were Jean Peters. Nowadays you would call it a hook-up. Love blossoms later.
Does this movie really have to spell it out that in the beginning there is nothing but sexual attraction between them? Everybody who thinks that has to watch more old movies.
Whatever you may call it, it's a joy to watch. Both characters are very flawed but extremely likable.
Another aspect that viewers seem to bemoan is the anti-"commie" fervor. This movie was made during the Cold War and at the height of the McCarthy era. What do you expect? Please do not tell me this movie is "dated" and old-fashioned because communists are the bad guys.
It is unfair to judge any film outside the times for which it was made. You have to be able to put the entire issue into perspective and into historical and social context and see the bigger picture. You have to be able to understand and appreciate history, meaning you have to understand how people “ticked” back then. You have to understand/open your mind to their values, motivations, beliefs, experiences etc. otherwise you will never ever get a feel for history and will always roll your eyes because people back then were “just so silly”.
These movie were made for the people back then, NOT for the people of today. Maybe Pickup was propaganda, BUT so are the modern views of today that people simply take for granted.
The movie also has the outstanding Thelma Ritter going for it whose performance as the downtrodden, sad and world-weary Mo is just heartbreaking.
For me the film is a masterpiece, and not only one you have to watch and like because it's expected to like a masterpiece, but because it's a lot of sheer fun to watch.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."