Pickup on South Street = Noir?

For awhile now, I've really wanted to watch one of Samuel Fuller's movies. Unfortunately, not until this weekend, I had the opportunity to do so. I chose Pickup on South Street because I was in the mood for a noir and heard that this was one of his best. I was optimistic. Most of the components of classic noir where there, the black and white contrasts within the cinematography, morally ambiguous characters, murder, etc. But, in the end the story became unfullfilling and truthfully, barely a noir. Yes, the movie took advantage of several key ingredients of the genre but overall it lacked the grittyness and darkness that noir usually portrays.

The key scenes where Fuller failed to grasp noir in its totality where when Moe (Thelma Riter - Rear Window) was shot in her bed, and the final two scenes (the fight and the resolution). The scene with Moe was too generous. The man who came to kill her let her go ahead and give her last will and testament before shooting her. The traditional noir would have showed its true brutality by not letting her finish and instead ending her life before she could end her plead. The final scenes were dissapointing as well. The "femme fatale", Candy (Jean Peters - Niagra), introduced at the beginning of the film turns out to be the victimized instead of the victimizer. She's too good. The "hero", Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark - Kiss of Death) is the morally ambiguous character at the center of this film. But contrary to noir, he does not end up falling for some "femme fatale" who leads him on to a path of destruction. Instead he falls in love with a woman, who despite her participation in passing along government secrets to the communists, is quite innocent. This whole paradigm of hero/femme fatale that is basic to classic noir is non-existent in Fuller's classic.

Despite all of this, it was still a pretty good movie. Not being a classic noir only impedes it from being just that, a noir. If you want to a see a romance mixed with noir elements and tendencies, then go pick up this movie sometime and enjoy.

To read more on the movie click here and here. Oh, and here as well.