Pickup on South Street (1953) Gets Some Criterion Love

The Criterion Collection released Pickup on South Street to Blu-ray on June 29, 2021. Samuel Fuller directed the film starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter.

‘Pickup on South Street’ Criterion Synopsis

Petty crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) has his eyes fixed on the big score. When the cocky three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy (Jean Peters), he finds a more spectacular haul than he could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. information. Tailed by manipulative Feds and the unwitting courier’s Communist puppeteers, Skip and Candy find themselves in a precarious gambit that pits greed against redemption, right against Red, and passion against self-preservation. With its dazzling cast and writer-director Samuel Fuller’s signature hard-boiled repartee and raw energy, Pickup on South Street is a true film noir classic by one of America’s most passionate cinematic craftspeople.

Special Features

• On the Blu-ray: New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• On the DVD: High-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City (Blu-ray only)
• Interview from 1989 with director Samuel Fuller, conducted by film critic Richard Schickel
• Cinéma cinémas: Fuller, a 1982 French television program in which the director discusses the making of the film
• On-screen biographical essay on Fuller, poster filmography, and publicity stills (DVD only)
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: Essays by author and critic Luc Sante and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and, for the Blu-ray edition, a chapter from Fuller’s posthumously published 2002 autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

Blu-ray cover by Eric Skillman (pictured); DVD cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang