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Pickup (1951 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Pickup' is a 1951 American film noir written and directed by Czech actor and filmmaker Hugo Haas. It was the first American film by Haas, a refugee from German-occupied Europe, who went on to make a series of gloomy noirs about doomed middle-aged men led astray by younger femmes fatales. Haas also starred in the film, alongside Beverly Michaels, Allan Nixon and Howland Chamberlain.
Plot
Low-budget, and showing it, 'Pickup' contains a plot that is similar to that of the 1946 film'The Postman Always Rings Twice' (1946), based on James M Cain's 1934 novel of the same name, but according to Larry Langman, "a poor man's version".
Haas plays Jan "Hunky" Horak, a hard-of-hearing railroad dispatcher who lives in a poor neighborhood by the railroad tracks and is seduced by Betty (Michaels), who is after his money. After they marry, Betty and her lover Steve Kowalski (Nixon) scheme to murder him. But in a chance accident, Jan regains his hearing and discovers their plot. Steve has a last-minute change of heart and Betty leaves, disgusted with Steve's inaction.
Cast
* Hugo Haas as Jan Horak
* Beverly Michaels as Betty
* Allan Nixon as Steve
* Howland Chamberlain as Professor
* Jo-Carroll Dennison as Irma
* Mark Lowell as Waiter
* Marjorie Beckett as Secretary Doctor
* Art Lewis as Driver
* Jack Daley as Company Doctor
* Bernard Gorcey as Joe
Reception
'Time' magazine praised Haas as "Hollywood's most promising new moviemaker" since Stanley Kramer, calling the film "a fascinating game of cat & mouse, played for pathos as well as suspense", and noted how its sense of character, acceptance of human frailty, and seedy, impoverished setting made it far from the usual Hollywood film."The New Pictures". 'Time', 0040781X, 8/27/1951, Vol. 58, Issue 9 More recently 'Filmfanatic.org' called it "a tawdry, low-budget camp classic", criticising predictable elements but praising the dialog and some unexpected plot twists. Fernando F Croce remarked on its "unusually blunt masochism" and sympathetic treatment of the femme fatale (who makes it out alive).
Release
It opened in New York on August 30, 1951. Released only to secondary and independent theaters upon its 1951 release.
See also
* 'Guard No. 47' (2008)
References
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