Kick-Back Friday: #101
Pickup on South Street (1953): Cops trailing a va-voom courier of government microfilm (Jean Peters) are diverted to a subway pickpocket (Richard Widmark), who unknowingly steals it. The pickpocket then has to contend with prying visits from the courier, the cops, and loathsome pinko sympathizers at his waterfront shack.
Other than asking, "What's the moral compass of a petty thief?" the movie raises this question: "Where exactly was there a waterfront shack in Manhattan?"
N.B.--The movie also features the incomparable Thelma Ritter as a tie peddler and professional CI. Her pre-demise monologue is something, bitches.
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What really elevates this film to high-art status is the gritty, uncredited cameo by Parley Baer as a sullen, fat, sweaty communist sympathizer. You know Parley as the voice of the Keebler elf, Ernie. Personally, I always thought that whole communal cookie-manufacturing-in-a-tree thing smelled pinko to me.