Pickup on South Street

A pickpocket who takes a wallet on the subway finds the film inside it is a state secret. The police and the spies are both after him, and he tries to bargain. The film does not make its hero a patriot; he thinks of his own interest to the end, and rather than criticising that the narrative uses it as a position against the political language of the period. The informer's story is its strongest passage. Samuel Fuller wrote and directed, with Richard Widmark and Thelma Ritter, who was nominated for an Oscar for the role. Who it's for: those who like hard noir and are curious about the politics of the fifties. Who it's not for: viewers looking for a sympathetic character; nobody here is good.