Samuel Fuller

 Samuel Fuller



Pickup on South Street (1953)



RANKED:


1. Pickup on South Street (1953)


Samuel Fuller's 1953 classic thriller "Pickup on South Street" is yet another testament and time stamp of the 1950s Cold War era in America. The film centers on a young woman who gets caught between a Communist plot to deliver a secret asset, the police trying to catch them, and a lowly pickpocket who, unaware of what he's stealing, picks her wallet containing the secret information. Safe to say, many parties did not like the involvement of the Communist aspect, including the French government who had the subject matter changed to a drug operation in the dubbed version, and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who demanded that all reference to the FBI be removed from the plot. Despite the pushback, "Pickup on South Street" remains a classic 1950s thriller with lots of influence from the popular noir movement at the time. 

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