Police intervene

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Movie
German title Police intervene
Original title Pickup on South Street
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 77 DE / USA 80 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Samuel Fuller
script Samuel Fuller based on a story by Dwight Taylor
production Jules Schermer
music Leigh Harline
camera Joseph MacDonald
cut Nick DeMaggio
occupation
synchronization

Police intervene (English original title: Pickup on South Street , German alternative title: Long fingers - hard fists , German TV title: Alarm on South Street ) is an American film by Samuel Fuller from 1953 . Thematically and stylistically, this gangster film can be assigned to the late film noir . Richard Widmark plays the pickpocket Skip McCoy, who ends up between the fronts of the Cold War by stealing a microfilm containing explosive information from American Communists to the Soviet Union and ultimately wins the love of the stolen Candy ( Jean Peters ). In both the German and French dubbed versions, the film was depoliticized by replacing the communist spies with drug dealers. The film won the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1953 .

action

Note: The plot description refers to the original English version of the film.

Skip McCoy is a pickpocket in New York City and lives secluded in a small fishing hut on the harbor. Arrested three times by the police, he has to fear that the next time he is arrested, he will be behind bars for life. On the subway , he steals her purse from Candy's handbag. What he does not know: the wallet contains a microfilm with secret material that American communists want to hand over to the Soviet Union; Candy is said to be the bearer of the film, but she has no idea of ​​its explosiveness. FBI officers shadowing Candy observe the theft, but Skip manages to get away from them. While Candy, after discovering the theft, desperately informs her ex-boyfriend and employer Joey, FBI agent Zara goes to the police in order to identify the pickpocket in the criminal record there. NYPD's Captain Tiger hires casual police informant Moe Williams to track down the thief more quickly. Moe identifies Skip using his "handwriting" when the theft occurred and betrays him to the police for 50 dollars. Skip is located in his hut and taken to Tiger and Zara at police headquarters, but denies the theft even after confronting the stolen film as part of an espionage campaign against the United States. He also turns down an offer that his criminal record could be canceled and that he would be an innocent man again if he collaborated .

At Joey's urging, Candy also tries to find Skip. Through her underworld contacts, she receives the tip to contact Moe. Candy receives Skip's address from Moe, but is knocked down by Skip when he catches her searching his cabin. When she comes to, she uses her practiced seduction skills and a story of lies to regain possession of the film; the two kiss. Skip demands $ 500 from Candy for the film. She gets the money from Joey, but Skip, who now suspects that his booty has a far greater value, accuses her of being a communist, takes the money from her and chases her out of his hut. He is now demanding $ 25,000 from her. Candy turns to Joey's communist backers who promise to settle the matter; Joey receives a revolver from his clients. Fearing that something might happen to Skip, Candy gives Joey a wrong address for Skip and warns Moe, whose address Joey already knows. After Moe meets Skip in a cafe and tells him that Candy is in love with him, she returns home, where Joey is already waiting for her. Tired and disaffected, she refuses to tell Joey where Skip lives. Joey shoots her. The police suspect Skip of having shot Moe and arrest him briefly, but following a tip from the FBI, he is released. Skip fetches Moe's coffin from the ship that was supposed to take him to the poor cemetery and makes sure that Moe has a decent funeral, as was her last will.

Candy looks for Skip in his hut and begs him to hand the film over to the police, because possession is life-threatening for him. Skip refuses, the two argue and Candy knocks Skip down to get hold of the film. With this she goes to the police, but does not know that Skip has removed a picture of the film and is carrying it with him. Tiger and Zara urge Candy to play the decoy for them in order to get to the backers. She agrees and informs Joey that she now has the film. Joey visits Candy to get the film, but realizes that a picture is missing and the film is worthless at the moment. He beats up Candy and shoots her down. He finds Skip's real address in her handbag. The police intervene and save the seriously injured Candy, but Joey is able to flee. Skip visits Candy in the hospital and realizes that she really loves him. Joey and an accomplice break into Skip's cabin looking for the missing picture. While the accomplice is waiting for Skip to take the picture from him, Joey is supposed to leave for the delivery meeting point. Skip, who was hiding from them, chases Joey, steals the revolver from his jacket in the subway and finally puts him and the recipient of the film at the delivery in the washroom of the subway station. Skip overpowers the two men and brutally beats Joey. The pickpocket and Candy, who has since recovered, have achieved their goal: he picks them up from the police station, his files are now “washed clean”. They leave the building arm in arm; whether in a bourgeois future remains speculation.

History of origin

Script and preproduction

Fuller received from Darryl F. Zanuck a script for a court drama called Blaze of Glory (dt .: "Glut of Glory" ) by Dwight Taylor , that as a possible film project for 20th Century Fox was traded. In it, a lawyer fell in love with her murdered client. However, Fuller wanted the story, as he writes in his autobiography, " to move the story a few rungs down the crime ladder . " He told Zanuck that he wanted to make "a realistic story about a small door, a professional thief, with authentic dialogues ." After initial doubts on the part of Zanuck, Fuller was given the opportunity to rewrite the script with this in mind and to introduce a political dimension. Fuller explains his motivation: “I liked the idea that the three main characters were supposed to be a pickpocket, a hooker and a bag girl who also works as a police informant. These three, at the bottom of the social pecking order, should then end up on the front lines of the Cold War. "

The German-British nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs gave information about the construction of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos to the Soviet Union on

The inspiration for Fuller was the story of the nuclear spy Klaus Fuchs , who was present in the media at the time , and who had delivered microfilms with explosive material to the Soviet Union. Fuller wanted to make a "comment on the nonsense of the Cold War climate in the 1950s" . A further stimulus for Fuller was an experience with his wife during a stay in Paris, when her wallet was stolen unnoticed while on a subway ride and Fuller was concerned about the artistry of pickpockets. The fact that Taylor's story originally took place in the context of the drug trade and was only politicized by Fuller, Fuller hides in his autobiography. Perhaps Fuller rewrote the script to escape the restrictions of the Production Code , which at the time regulated the representation of crime and sexual intercourse in American films.

Fuller's proposed title for the film, Pickpocket ("Pickpocket") , was rejected by those responsible as "too European". The alternative cannon ( "cannon" or "gun" , American also "the pickpocket" ) was discarded, as one would think more of a war film than a gangster drama. Eventually they agreed on the title Pickup on South Street , with which Fuller was able to pay tribute to New York Street , which he knew well from his time as a reporter. Fuller traveled to New York to research authentic police work at the NYPD . A detective named Dan Campion gave him a look at the pickpocketing work there. The set designer Lyle R. Wheeler had the sets for the film made from Fuller's sketches. Special attention was paid to the design of the fisherman's hut where Skip lives in the film. Down to the smallest details such as the pin-ups on the wall, the hammock in which Skip sleeps, and the device with which he can sink his beer in the water of the harbor to cool it, the shed became a symbol of Skips Isolation from the rest of the world implemented authentically. Fuller, influenced by Italian neorealism in the style of Roberto Rossellini , Vittorio De Sica or Luchino Visconti , wanted a dirty, excessively sharp visual style for the film, a realistic representation of the living environment of the petty criminals with shabby cafes, tattoo shops and anonymous subway trains -Stations. In order, according to Server, "to create the impression of a teeming Dickensian underworld"

After Richard Widmark was quickly determined for the main role, the search for the female counterpart turned out to be more difficult. Shelley Winters , Ava Gardner and Betty Grable auditioned for the role of Candy, the latter, however, provided that the film had to include a dance scene for them. Even Marilyn Monroe showed interest in the role, but was rejected by Fuller in her charisma to sensual. A week before shooting began, Fuller found his ideal cast in Jean Peters. Fuller says in his autobiography that the slight bow legs of Peters had been the decisive factor for his choice. It would make her look like she'd spent her life on the street, Fuller said. Peters agreed to work on the film, but requested that she be given as much rehearsal time as Widmark and Thelma Ritter had already completed. Fuller immediately began intensive daily rehearsals with Peters. He spreads the story that the actress was brought to the rehearsal every day by a large car, the driver of which stayed in the car for the entire rehearsal time, hidden behind sunglasses and newspaper, and followed the rehearsal from the parking lot. Fuller later learned that it was Howard Hughes , the powerful media entrepreneur. Jean Peters had been his lover at the time, but the relationship was still kept secret from the public.

production

Police intervene was a medium budget A production . Filming took place within 20 days. in September and October 1952 in the studio and on, according to Fuller, “not-so-beautiful locations” in downtown Los Angeles , which stood for New York. Despite the short preparation and shooting time, Fuller was able to precisely plan and implement the often long, dialog-heavy sequences of the film.For example, the scene with Moe on the presidium lasts almost ten minutes and includes a total of 22 different camera positions, with only a single cut to the FBI man interrupts this long scene.

Widmark, an established star of the studio system, initially acted, according to Fuller, "squabble and narrow-minded" during filming . He challenged Fuller to a power struggle to demonstrate his claim to authority on the set: On his first visit to police headquarters, Fuller told him to zigzag between desks and steal a candy from one of the cops. Widmark refused, saying he would go straight to Tiger's office. Fuller let him go, but when Widmark later asked why he should have done the zigzag course, he was told that the scene should have made it clear that Skip had been to the presidium so many times that he knew his way around as well as at home. As a result, Fuller, as he notes in his autobiography, "hardly had any more problems with Widmark following the instructions"

Widmark himself remembers that he had no more problems with Fuller, whom he calls a "tough little guy," after he asked him about his habit of firing a pistol in the air as a sign of the start of shooting for a scene , but please refrain. Widmark emphasizes that his commitment to police interventions was merely a contract performance for Fox, in which artistic aspects were not a factor.

synchronization

The German dubbing was created in 1953 in the studio of Ultra Film Synchron GmbH in Berlin .

role actor Voice actor
Skip McCoy Richard Widmark Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
Candy Jean Peters Eleanor Noelle
tiger Murvyn Vye Wolf Martini
FBI agent Zara Willis Bouchey Eduard Wandrey
Det. Winocki Milburn Stone Hans Wiegner
Wrestler Louie Victor Perry Alfred Balthoff
FBI agent Enger Jerry O'Sullivan Wolfgang Preiss
Joe Richard Kiley Peter Petersz
Lt. Campion John Gallaudet Erich Dunskus

reception

The film was released in US cinemas on June 17, 1953, and the German theatrical release was December 11, 1953. In the German dubbed version, the political aspect was eliminated by turning the communists into drug dealers. Even in the French language version - the film was called Le Port de la Drogue (“The Drug Port ”) in France - politicization was dispensed with; Fuller's opinion due to the strong position of the communist press in the formation of public opinion in France at the time.

Contemporary criticism

The American press judged the film very ambiguous. On the one hand the “rough realism” was praised, on the other hand the “depravity and sensationalism” was denounced. The Los Angeles Daily News described him as "the opposite of family entertainment" with "characters barely a step higher than the gutter," as Fuller intended. In general the words "brutality, sadism" and "unnecessary violence."

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote on June 18, 1953 that the film was a "lurid midnight story " in which Fuller was more of a "cannonade of sensations" than telling a story that was believable. This “nonsense” then finally collapses when the gangsters “ignite with patriotic zeal” and, by helping to break up the communist organization, wash their police files clean. The acting performances of Widmark, Peters and Ritter are however "very good" . Crowther particularly emphasizes the game of the "brilliant" , "admirable" Thelma Ritter.

J. Edgar Hoover , Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1924 until his death in 1972

At the start of the film, Variety notes that the only statement the film makes, if any, is that pickpockets are all right as long as they don't mess with communist spies. That would be “a very thin subject” for a film, so it borders, “probably unintentionally” , on a comedy. Only the photography, which "occasionally creates a gripping atmosphere" , and the acting performance of Ritter, "the only halfway believable figure in an otherwise unconvincing cast" , are plus points in the film.

In Germany, the criticism wasn't particularly good either. The Catholic film critics described the film as a "gloomy crime affair from New York" and judged: "Well-done, well-done, tough and questionable police methods" .

The political dimension of the film was controversial. The film was only approved from liberal positions as a comment on “Cold War nonsense,” according to Fuller. Conservative opinions thought the film was pro-communist. During a meeting with Fuller in a Hollywood restaurant, J. Edgar Hoover , who had the film shown to himself at the FBI , criticized the hero's anti-American attitude and the fact that the FBI was portrayed as if it were making money for petty criminals Pay information. On the contrary, communist positions asserted that the film was anti-communist propaganda. The French surrealist filmmaker and, according to Fuller, “Stalinist” Georges Sadoul , expressed themselves accordingly .

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1954 , Thelma Ritter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to Donna Reed for her role in Damned For All Eternity . The film was awarded the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival ; the Golden Lion was not awarded that year. Fuller wasn't present at the awards ceremony, but learned about it on the set of Inferno . It wasn't until years later that Fuller was informed that his film had prevailed despite opposition from jury chairman Luchino Visconti . Visconti had rejected him because of his own communist beliefs.

Aftermath

Fuller's work had an influence on the auteur filmmakers of the Nouvelle Vague both in terms of content, for example through the relentless theming of violence and social outsiders, and in terms of style . Gifford points out that the police intervening is "one of the films that made the [...] Nouvelle Vague". Jean-Luc Godard, for example, cited several scenes of police intervening in Out of Breath (1960) . For example, the opening scene with Belmondo peeking out from behind a newspaper is reminiscent of that of police intervening , as is a scene that takes place in a washroom, a similar scene in Fuller's film Also Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959), although completely in character disposition and style different, shares with the police intervenes in the theme of, according to Arnold and Göttler, "Redemption of a [...] pickpocket (pickpocket) through the love of a woman" .

In June 1954 the material was set to music by the Hollywood Radio Theater with Stephen McNally , Thelma Ritter and Terry Moore as a radio play version. This production was released in 2006 with 39 other radio plays by Hollywood Radio Theaters and Lux Radio Theaters under the title Espionage in a 20 CD box in the Californian Nostalgia Ventures program.

In 1967, director Robert D. Webb shot a remake of Police Intervene in South Africa under the title The Cape Town Affair . James Brolin played Skip McCoy, Jacqueline Bisset played Candy. The plot has been moved to 1960s South Africa, but the political theme has been retained.

Police intervene was added to the National Film Registry in 2018 .

Film studies evaluation

The film literature evaluates the film largely positively and particularly highlights the strengths of Fuller's unconventional staging. Barry Gifford , screenwriter for David Lynch and film noir specialist, enthusiastically reviews Police Intervenes in his book Out of the Past . He was "Fuller's best film" and "Jean Peter's best role" . Police intervene , "shot in sweat-dripping, grainy black and white" , is "really very European with its long shots, its music, its pale approach to life." In Moe's death scene, "the deadly sentimentality [...] even overwhelms the ghosts." by Édith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier ” . For Jack Shadoian, the film is “a figurehead for the crime film of the 1950s”. Andrew Dickos praises the film as a successful synthesis of documentary character and the noir themed world. "The connection between the reporter-like depiction of reality and the violence that gives it dramatic expression," says Fuller, "straight to the heart of film noir."

Lee Server thinks the police intervenes for “Fuller's most perfectly realized film and one of the undisputed masterpieces of crime film and film noir” He was “infinitely inventive and energetic, tight and efficient [...], and yet jam-packed with unmistakable quirks, a fresh one Imagery and unexpected poetry ” .

Phil Hardy, on the other hand, criticizes the story, which in his eyes is too weak: Skip is uninteresting as a gangster for the audience. His motivation to act is merely greed, a narrative too weak motivation for Hardy; In addition, the main character does not experience any profound changes in character and living conditions, but only returns to his previous life. For Hardy, the only interesting thing is the political aspect, the question of whether Skip will decide for or against America. He sums up: "The main virtues of police intervening lie in their politicization."

Samuel Fuller in 1987, 35 years after the shooting of Police intervenes

Colin McArthur accuses Fuller of "romantic nationalism" . He does not succeed in showing that the scandalous living conditions of the petty criminals are causally related to the political system of the USA. McArthur concludes, however, conciliatory: “The connection between the harsh underworld […] and the political structure of America, to which the characters show their irrational loyalty, is not one that Fuller perceives. The fact that he fails to show this connection is no reason to underestimate the power and personality of his work. "

For Peter Lev Police is a "stylistically exciting film that deals - somehow bizarre - with local communism." The characters are "more cartoonish than realistic" , but they bring "the dangerous sexuality of urban outsiders into film noir"

The Lexicon of International Films notes that in the German dubbed version “the political thrust was eliminated” . The film is a “crime thriller that has now become a classic” , which is a “hard, cynical and relatively brutal variant of Hollywood's ' black series '” . In Das Große Film-Lexikon, Arne Laser describes the film as "cynical, brutal and pessimistic" , but it is not propaganda "despite the political background of the plot" . The "incomparable" Thelma Ritter is "the real star of the show" . Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz rate it in their lexicon "Films on TV" with 2½ stars, at least as above average , and say: "Fuller made the fast-paced, tough film with an anti-communist touch and vehement love scenes."

DVD release

In 2004 the film was released on DVD for German-speaking countries by KOCH Media , but without the extras of the release for the US market that was released by the Criterion Collection in the same year and which contains interviews with Fuller and other background material.

On December 24, 2004, Thomas Klingenmaier from the Stuttgarter Zeitung took the DVD publication and Widmark's 90th birthday as an opportunity to honor his performance in police interventions . He praised Fuller's directorial work, who filmed “as if every shot was a new sensational headline” and highlighted Widmark's portrayal of Skip McCoy as a “schizophrenic figure” , which was “Widmark's specialty” . The figure appears "with a provocative disdain for society" , which Fuller approves.

Geoff Pevere of The Toronto Star wrote when he presented the Criterion DVD on April 8, 2004 that police intervened was " Fuller's most celebrated, but also most controversial film" . The opening sequence is the "most sexualized pickpocketing sequence in film history" , the film has "the propelling rhythm of a story that is told like the constant clatter of a typewriter" .

Film analysis

Staging

Visual style

Fuller's film, with works such as Robert Aldrich's Rattennest and Joseph H. Lewis Secret Ring 99 (both 1955), can be counted towards the late phase of film noir. In these films, according to Shadoian, “the stylized, decorative aspects of film noir […] are replaced by relentless, uncouth […] energy and pressure” . Server confirms that Fuller uses "various scenic elements of the noir style", but he keeps "the tempo too high and the narrative too dense for the painterly opulence and the gloomy lengthiness of the classic noir expression". Typical noir elements such as expressive shadows, Low-key illuminated scenes in contrast to day-light, almost documentary sequences or the isolation of characters by light beams from flashlights or the like do take place, but they have to be subordinate to the themes and emotions of the plot. The visual style, adapted to the genre of the lurid detective film, is “nervous and exaggerated” , paired with a “comic-like expressionism” of the dialogues, which places little value on linguistic subtleties but rather on the authentic reproduction of the language habits of the lower class. Violence and brutality are no longer used stylized as ornament, as in earlier noirs, but, according to Shadoian, presented "with precision and expressiveness" .

Fuller uses the possibilities of narrow frame framing to visualize feelings and motivations. A kissing scene between Skip and Candy is connoted with a subliminal feeling of violence, with a heavy iron hook and a thick rope in the foreground separating the two in the cadrage. In the scene when Skip visits Candy in the hospital, he can be seen filmed in an "impossible" shot (her bed is against the wall) from behind through the rungs of the bed headboard. The camera pans back and forth between the rungs; Skips face is covered by them until he realizes that Candy allowed herself to be hit out of love for him. Only then can his face be seen freely between the rungs.

Fuller uses the possibilities of giving situations a claustrophobic atmosphere not through the image detail shown, but also through the filming locations themselves in the scenes at the police headquarters: the location, spatially limited from the start, is made through the use of space-consuming props and avoidance the use of wide-angle lenses made cinematic even closer. The effect achieved is that the protagonists, for example in interrogation situations, so Garnham, appear "as if they had been attacked from all sides" and were cornered.

Camera work

Characteristic of Fuller's camera work are long shots with a moving camera and the use of close-ups . Fuller explains his staging style like this: “I wanted to show this world where people lead a shadowy existence, very isolated. Not a lot of people, just a lot of close-ups, focused on the people. I wanted to be able to move with Jean Peters. I said to the cameraman: 'Take it easy with her!' Movement should be a counteraction, whether in action scenes, dialogues or something else. It counteracts where your gaze turns. ” Through its movement with the protagonists and the impressive, close look into their faces, the camera clearly distributes the sympathies on the part of the three main actors. Shadoian states that it is “impossible not to see that Fuller's camera, […] its movement and its placement, impressively leads us to see things in a certain way.” In the scene of Moe's murder, for example, the camera moves during her farewell monologue slowly head-on towards Ritter's face, and then at the moment of the murder, according to Norbert Grob, “discreetly” pans to the side; the tension that has built up dissolves in pity. Shadoian states: "No one except Ingmar Bergman used the close-up as fearlessly as Fuller."

In addition to these moving shots, which are characterized by close-ups, Shaodoian's opinion is that a statically filmed scene from the long shot has the greatest impact in the film: When Skip fetches Moe's coffin from the ship that goes to the poor cemetery, the viewer remains more respectful throughout the long sequence Distance. He has to wait until the coffins are stacked and the right one is loaded and during this time he can absorb the whole "black, sad mood" , according to Shadoian, that is evoked in this scene. Shadoian is of the opinion that close-up shots have destroyed the "sincerity of the scene" , so the dignity is preserved "despite the grim humor" . Shadoian judges that there is "no funeral scene in film history that is more brilliant, original and emotionally intense," Server states that the scene is "a rebuke to anyone who thinks Fuller has no feel for subtleties . "

As a contrast to the long shots, the dialogue-free opening sequence should be mentioned: The theft in the subway is made by Fuller with a rapid frequency of close-ups and the constant alternation of lower and upper views , "says Shadoian, " as cinematically free as in only a few commercial ones Productions of this time ” . Server speculates that Fox may have had some influence on Fuller's camera work during the filming process in order to keep the Fox House style recognizable in the film and to prevent Fuller "from fully executing his own exuberant and experimental style . " Therefore, Fuller had to be content with a few "sudden cinematic dangling" , for example when the camera in the scene in which Joey beats Candy becomes an excited, hectic spectator.

music

In addition to the driving, brass-heavy film music by Leigh Harline , in the scene in which Moe is murdered, the song "Mam'zelle" can be heard, which Moe plays on her gramophone when she receives a visit from her killer. Fuller thought the piece , held in the style of a melancholy French chanson , was a popular hit from France and asked Alfred Newman , the house composer at Fox, whether the rights could be acquired. Newman informed him that Fox already owned the rights: the composer was the director Edmund Goulding , who had already used it in his 1946 film Auf Messers Schneide .

Motives and themes

Petty crime

Fuller's staff and subjects in this film come from the world of little crooks who have to survive with rip-offs and shady deals. Their way of life is in no way prejudiced by Fuller, but rather presented in the style of a reporter and with an understanding of their living conditions. Phil Hardy states, “Fuller, knowing that America's secrets are in the gutter, that the surface is reality when viewed correctly, is tearing that surface apart and doing his own thing, not by judging the facts but rather by examining them through a reporter's perception for their most pressing characteristics - however contradicting these characteristics may be. ” Fuller's sympathy for the marginalized figures includes Fuller's criticism of the American way of life : life in crime is that for them only alternative to survive. Fuller explains, “In this story, the crime pays off. It's a business. They are not criminals of their own free will [...], they do it because it is the only way to make a living. "

The three main actors, standing outside of bourgeois society, are the only ones in the film who act in a humane way. The police and state officials, like their communist opponents, are portrayed either as bland or disgusting, or exposed to the mockery of the spectator. Shadoian perceives the film as a test of the viewer's humanity by forcing them to feel sympathy with the anti-bourgeois characters through Fuller's partisanship. Ultimately, it is not the police who protect society from communism, but the criminal; for Fuller he is "the only hope that something will change for the better."

Outsider

The figure of Skip McCoy, following the conventions of film noir, is an outsider alienated from society and uprooted in his personal lifestyle . His isolation from society is clearly implemented on film: Garnham explains that the perfect equivalent of his outsiderhood is “the highly positioned shot [...] that shows the shed in which Skip lives, a small wooden box surrounded by water, from the outermost edge outstanding in civilization, only connected to the city by a narrow plank. "

The preservation of a decent existence outside of civil conventions becomes the central theme of the film. Dickos explains: “Ultimately, Skip McCoy's search becomes an effort to identify oneself in a world full of confusion, confusion and noise - what Sartre called the 'too much' of existence - and in the process to establish a degree of personal identity claim. " Fuller confirms: " This character, McCoy, he lives alone [...] in his own jungle, in a cocoon. […] That's why Sartre is so great […]: Call it noir, but no matter what happens here and there, it always remains a personal view of things. Even if we say 'we', it always remains 'me'. Society forces us to think we are, but a guy like Skip disregards it. "

Eddie Muller draws parallels between Fuller and his main character in this endeavor to have to maintain his own identity every day: “Sam Fuller was the Hollywood counterpart to Skip McCoy: his way through the marginal world of the makers of B -Movies, [...] only living to be able to go back to work the next day. Like Skip, he faced the atrocities of the world with a cynical laugh [...]. Fuller never calmly accepted the nihilism of his vision; he raised his forehead, constantly and loudly, with fists flying ” .

violence

Fuller staged police attacks in excess of acts of violence and brutalities: Skip knocked out Candy and pours her beer in her face to wake her up again. Joey beats up Candy and shoots her in the back; Skip hits Joey so hard on the subway that his chin hits every step of the stairs. The depiction of violence is particularly concerning the murder Moes for Shadoian "shocking" because "funny, sweet old ladies are not usually shot in the film." . Shadaioan refers to Fuller's background as a crime reporter and war participant and states: "Fuller not only uses violence, he believes in it." For him, it is a "primitive but effective way of communication". Violence serves Fuller as a catalyst for what is human Feelings and wishes for freedom remain in extreme situations and have the liberating effect of a catharsis . For Skip Mittel she is “in a process of change towards a more human being.” In this film, according to Shadoian, “human priorities [...] can only be restored through violence” .

The love scenes between Skip and Candy and the mutual erotic attraction are always staged in this context with undertones of violence. The boundaries between the brutalities and tenderness exchanged are fluid. In the constant interaction of, according to Grob, “violence and feeling, humiliation and interest, war and love” , Hardy's statement is confirmed: “If Fuller's films belong to any genre, then to that of the war film , to which they can all be broken down, at least metaphorically. "

Love and loyalty

Mutual loyalty is of great importance in the protagonists' world. Although the characters are always ready to betray each other for money, knowing that the betrayal only happens to make a living, they still stand up for each other. Skip isn't angry that Moe betrayed him - he says, “Moe is fine. She has to eat ” - but only accuses her of betraying him for $ 50 too cheap. According to Shadoian, people fight in "mutual give and take" according to their underworld traditions for, according to Dickos, "the right to ordinary happiness." They want to "create what society denies them."

Moe takes on the role of mother to Skip and Candy. She, the tie seller, holds the world of the two together in a unifying function. Shadoian refers to the double meaning of tie , which can mean both tie and ribbon . When Moe dies, Skip and Candy are, according to Shadoian, "motherless orphans" . Only through this circumstance do the two find their love for each other.

The first kiss Skip and Candy exchange is, according to Fuller, a "business kiss . " They are not yet emotionally bound to each other, but use their physical attraction to achieve their own goals. They are both in the position of the outsider, whose safety can only be guaranteed if you reveal as little about yourself as possible. Only when Skip realizes that Candy allowed himself to be beaten out of love for him does his reserved attitude change. He now has to face the emotional challenge of being loved. This forces him to make a moral - and also political - decision; but not out of loyalty to the state, but out of love for Candy, he ultimately helps the FBI to get the microfilm. In the end, love wins: the characters break free, they get new opportunities for life by allowing passions and emotions, but without having to give up their social outsider position.

politics

US Senator Joseph McCarthy stands with his name for a phase that was characterized by intense anti-communism .

The controversial discussion about a possible political message of the film raises the question of the extent to which Fuller really wanted to take a political position, or whether the espionage story and the microfilm merely serve as MacGuffin , as the tension core of the film that drives the plot forward. Fuller confirms that he wanted to depict the political climate of the time: "I am reflecting on America at the time of McCarthy [...] This is what the whole story is about, about racism and bigotry ." But that his main focus is on the life circumstances of the pickpocket and not on global politics He also makes it clear: “I don't care about ideologies, it's all yawning boring […] The film is about espionage, a risky business, just like pickpocketing. [...] I wanted to show the contrast between the political point of view, the 'Red Danger' and all this stuff, and the reality of the crook: and only that counts. I am down to earth. Political motives are star-catching. "

Nevertheless, all three main characters have an anti-communist attitude that is not based on the dialogues, but rather instinctual. This attitude reflects the antipathy of many Americans against communism at the time. Fuller says, "They expressed what a lot of people felt." Peter Lev puts police in a row with other film noirs such as Robert Stevenson's I Married a Communist (1950) and I was an FBI Man MC (1951) of Gordon Douglas . These films would mean a departure from the more liberal basic positions of film noir of the 1940s towards an often diffuse anti-communism. Lev says the main theme of police intervening is the thesis "that even American criminals hate communists . " This “pretty stupid assumption” enables Fuller to make a brisk detective film without having to define or describe communism. “The impression of an America threatened by internal infiltration” is implemented through the means of film noir.

Colin McArthur names McCarthy as well as the name of the Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver , who uncovered the existence of a nationwide criminal cartel controlled by the Mafia , among the political influences on the film . Accordingly, Fuller's communists are "visually indistinguishable" from the villains of the gangster films of the 1930s and 1940s; Smoking a cigar, living in obvious affluence and organized along the lines of a criminal syndicate.

Commenting on the director's own political leanings, Server said: “Of course, Fuller, who was a radical individualist, was also an anti-communist, but his view of democracy was anti-propagandist at the same time, focusing on the warts and calluses of an America populated by social nobody. " Peter Wollen also traces the political dimension in Fuller's work back to his own worldview, shaped by war and journalism, and refers to the events of the Korean War : " The underlying theme is the nature of loyalty and betrayal. Specifically, of course, allegiance and treason to the United States. Fuller keeps coming back to the case of the GIs who defected to the communists in Korea. ” That the film works as a story even without the political undertone - McArthur confirms that the explicitly political elements only take place in dialogue - show the German and French dubbed versions, which, despite the changes, do not let the narrative cohesion fall apart.

Philip French wrote in The Guardian 2015 that Fuller put his own patriotic attitude in the middle of the picture in the first scene in a confusing way, and that this was overlooked by critics for years: from the very beginning, the film was repeatedly filmed over the shoulder of a soldier Wears shoulder badge of Big Red One , which Fuller himself belonged to the 1st US Infantry Division during World War II. Finally, when Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) slowly works his way out of the background, Fuller has him behind the soldier with the shoulder badge in the middle of the picture by panning the camera and driving.

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 291
  2. ↑ a b c d quoted in: Porfirio / Silver / Ursini p. 39
  3. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 295
  4. ↑ Server p. 33
  5. ↑ Hardy, p. 26
  6. ↑ Joseph K. Heumann and Robin L. Murray put this assumption to the pages of Jump Cut on
  7. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 298
  8. ↑ a b Server p. 70
  9. ^ Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 299
  10. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 300
  11. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 303
  12. ↑ Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 301
  13. ↑ Server p. 71
  14. ↑ a b Porfirio / Silver / Ursini p. 41
  15. ^ A b c Frank Arnold / Fritz Göttler: 22 films by Samuel Fuller in: Von Berg / Grob p. 142
  16. ↑ quoted in: Server p. 33
  17. ↑ a b c d Shadoian p. 194
  18. ↑ a b Garnham p. 28
  19. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 304
  20. ↑ quoted in: Server p. 111
  21. ↑ Server p. 111
  22. ↑ Police intervene in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ( memento of the original from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved April 22, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de
  23. ↑ a b Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 305
  24. ^ "Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist: Reading the Hollywood Reds," by Jeff Smith, University of California Press, 2014, p. 154. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  25. ↑ “Pickup on South Street Mixes Underworld Goons With Communist Spies,” by Bosley Crowther , The New York Times , June 18, 1953, accessed November 24, 2018.
  26. ↑ "Pickup on South Street" , Variety , December 31, 1952 accessed November 24, 2018th
  27. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 339
  28. ↑ Server p. 34
  29. ↑ a b Gifford p. 133f
  30. ↑ Garnham p. 158
  31. ↑ Espionage - 40 classic radio shows . Nostalgia Ventures, Encinitas, CA 2006, ISBN 1-932806-44-X
  32. ↑ On the pages of Jump Cut , the two films are compared and the connections between South African anti-communism and apartheid politics are illustrated using this example
  33. ↑ a b c d e Shadoian p. 186
  34. ↑ Dickos p. 128
  35. ↑ a b c d e Server p. 72
  36. ↑ a b Hardy p. 29
  37. ^ A b Colin McArthur: Pickup on South Street in: Will / Wollen p. 29
  38. ^ A b Colin McArthur: Pickup on South Street in: Will / Wollen p. 30
  39. ↑ a b Lev p. 53
  40. ^ Lexicon of International Films. Cinema, television, video, DVD. Published by the Catholic Institute for Media Information (KIM) and the Catholic Film Commission for Germany. Red. Horst Peter Koll with collabor. by Josef Lederle, welcomed by Klaus Brüne, 4891 pp., Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-86150-455-3 , volume 2, p. 2445
  41. ↑ Arne Laser (al) in: Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf, Willy Loderhose (Hrsg.): Das große Film-Lexikon. All top films from A-Z . Second edition, revised and expanded new edition. tape IV . Verlagsgruppe Milchstraße, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89324-126-4 , p. 2198 .
  42. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 650
  43. ↑ Thomas Klingenmaier: The thief and his disgust - seen again: Richard Widmark's film heroes in the Stuttgarter Zeitung on December 24, 2004, accessed via LexisNexis
  44. ↑ Geoff Pevere: Better dead than red in the Toronto Star April 8, 2004, accessed via LexisNexis
  45. ↑ a b c Shadoian p. 193
  46. ↑ Garnham p. 29
  47. ↑ quoted in: Porfirio / Silver / Ursini p. 42
  48. ↑ Shadoian p. 181
  49. ^ A b Norbert Grob: No stylist, a hardboiled director in: von Berg / Grob p. 13
  50. ↑ Shadoian p. 195
  51. ^ Fuller / Lang Fuller / Rudes p. 297
  52. ↑ quoted in: Dickos p. 128
  53. ↑ a b Shadoian p. 187
  54. ↑ Shadoian p. 190
  55. ↑ Dickos p. 63
  56. ↑ Muller p. 37
  57. ↑ a b c Shadoian p. 188
  58. ↑ a b Shadoian p. 191
  59. ↑ Shadoian p. 192
  60. ↑ I don't like it when there is always an easy way out - Samuel Fuller relates in: Von Berg / Grob p. 95
  61. ↑ Shadoian, p. 182
  62. ↑ Dickos p. 126
  63. ↑ a b Shadoian p. 189
  64. ↑ Muller p. 37
  65. ↑ quoted in: I don't like it when there is always an easy way out - Samuel Fuller tells in: von Berg / Grob p. 95
  66. ↑ quoted in: Porfirio / Silver / Ursini p. 41
  67. ↑ quoted in: Server p. 35
  68. ↑ Peter Wollen in: Will / Wollen p. 10
  69. ^ "Pickup on South Street review - a masterly film noir" in The Guardian , August 23, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2018.

literature

Primary literature

  • Harry Brown, Dwight Taylor, Samuel Fuller, Darryl Francis Zanuck: Blaze of glory - screenplay . Twentieth Century-Fox, 1952. (First draft of the script on March 19, 1952)
  • Samuel Fuller: Blaze of Glory - screenplay . 1952. (Draft script dated August 13, 1952)
  • Samuel Fuller: Pick-up on South Street . Script City, 1952.
  • Samuel Fuller: Pickup on South Street . In: Scenario - the magazine of screenwriting art. Vol. 4, No. 3. RC Publications, New York 1998.

Secondary literature

  • Ulrich von Berg, Norbert Grob (Ed.): Fuller . Edition Films, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88690-060-6 .
  • Andrew Dickos: Street with No Name - A History of the Classic American Film Noir . University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2002, ISBN 978-0-8131-2243-4 .
  • Samuel Fuller with Christa Lang Fuller and Jerome Henry Rudes: A Third Face - My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking . Applause Theater & Cinema Books, New York 2002, ISBN 1-55783-627-2 .
  • Nicholas Garnham: Samuel Fuller . Cinema One 15, The Viking Press, New York 1971, ISBN 0-436-09917-9 .
  • Barry Gifford: Out of the Past - Adventures in Film noir . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2001, ISBN 1-57806-290-X .
  • Phil Hardy: Samuel Fuller . Studio Vista Film Paperbacks, London 1970, ISBN 0-289-70035-3 .
  • Peter Lev: The Fifties - Transforming the Screen 1950–1959 History of the American Cinema Vol. 7. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 2003, ISBN 0-520-24966-6 .
  • Eddie Muller: Dark City - The Lost World of Film Noir . St. Martins Griffin, New York 1998, ISBN 0-312-18076-4 .
  • Robert Porfirio, Alain Silver and James Ursini (Eds.): Film Noir Reader 3 - Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period . Limelight Editions, New York 2002, ISBN 0-87910-197-0 .
  • Lee Server: Sam Fuller - Film Is a Battleground . McFarland & Company Inc., Jefferson 1994, ISBN 0-7864-0008-0 .
  • Jack Shadoian: Dreams & Dead Ends - The American Gangster Film . Oxford University Press 2003, ISBN 0-19-514292-6 .
  • David Will, Peter Wollen (Ed.): Samuel Fuller . Edinburgh Film Festival 69 in association with Scottish International Review, 1969.

Web links

Film databases

Essays and further information

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 12, 2007 in this version .