340 - Pickup on South Street, United States, 1953. Dir. Samuel Fuller.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

340 - Pickup on South Street, United States, 1953.  Dir. Samuel Fuller.

You look for oil, sometimes you hit a gusher.

That is what Skip McCoy says to Candy.

He picked her pocketbook this morning on the subway.  All he wanted was a little cash and some jewelry.  He had no idea what he was getting into.

Skip is a cannon.  He picks pockets.

Candy is a muffin.  She gets her pocket picked.

Skip just got out of jail a week ago, for his third term.  He is now known as a three-time loser.  One more pick-up and he is in for life.

He is not worried about that.  He is too good.  Nobody sees his hands.  Nobody ever sees his hands.

Unless they are already watching her purse.

If only he had known Candy was carrying a microfilm with secret government plans to deliver to a Communist group engaged in espionage against America.

If only Candy had known.

If only they had known the FBI was already watching her purse.

She was carrying the film for her ex-boyfriend.  He told her it was for business.  She assumed it was something illegal--like stealing another company's patent--but she had no idea he was a spy.

Good thing she has already broken up with him.  Too bad she promised him one more delivery on her way out.

Skip lives in a shack over the water.  With planks leading from the docks.  He keeps his bottled beer in a wooden crate under water and pulls it up with a rope and pulley.  He has a secret compartment underneath where he stores his stash--inside a watertight plastic bag inside a watertight canister inside a watertight plastic bag.

No one can ever find his take.

No one can pin anything on him.

And no one could find him if it were not for a certain little old lady who sells personality neckwear.  Commonly known as ties.

Her name is Moe.  She is a stool.  She gives out information for a price.  The cops and the Feds are going through their files, looking for a picture to match the face they saw in the subway.

This is going to take forever.

So they call in Moe.

She wants fifty dollars for the information.  He offers thirty-five.  They settle on thirty-eight fifty.  They cannot pay her because that would be illegal.  So they make a thirty-eight-fifty bet.  If she provides the information, then they lose the bet and pay up.

She does not know who did it.  But she can figure it out.  Stop telling me his appearance.  Medium height.  Ha!  Who isn't?  Tell me how he did it.  Every cannon on the street has his own method.  Tell me his method and I'll tell you who did it.  To keep the bet, I'll give you eight names and then you figure it out.

Did he stand behind her?  Then walk around in front of her?  Did he have a newspaper?  Was it rolled or folded?  Was he turned to the front page or the classified adds?  Did he leave the newspaper on top of her purse when he left?

She knows.

When the cops come to search his premises, that is one thing.  But when they bring him in to the station and introduce him to the Feds, everything changes.

Skip wanted a few dollars.

Now he has something that everybody wants.  The microfilm.

He looked for oil.

He hit a gusher.

Candy comes to see him.  (She finds Moe too.)  Because Joey, her ex-boyfriend, is too cowardly to come himself.  He gives her five hundred dollars.  He tells her to offer Skip fifty.  If he holds out, raise it fifty.  Keep going until he takes it.  Use the rest to buy a dress.

Skip is too smart for that.  He picks her purse again.  And takes the entire five hundred.

Then he demands twenty-five thousand for the film.

A gusher.

But in the process of negotiating with Candy, Skip sort-of, well, watch it.

This is a small-time wallet snatcher we are talking about.  Is he really up for taking on an international organization of Communist spies?  With deep pockets?  And guns?

Candy might just find her a new man.

The old man might not like it.

Skip might use all of this as leverage to clear his record with the local police.

But people are in over heir heads.

And someone is going to get hurt.

And someone might just die.

Moe advises Skip.  Stop using your hands, Skip, and start using your head.

What if he starts using his heart?

Candy is using hers.

His as shifty as smoke.

But I love him.

If only they can survive.