It was about 9:00 p.m. and I wasn’t tired, so I asked Claude for a spy movie less than 100 minutes long. It suggested a few, including Pickup on South Street from 1953.
Turns out, the entire film is on YouTube, and has a running time of just 77 minutes. (Pete would be so happy…)
It was… okay. The “spy” aspect is just a MacGuffin — a pickpocket lifts a woman’s wallet on the subway. Turns out it has microfilm in it. She’s a courier for a traitor and everyone wants it back.
I mean, let’s face it, the missing thing could have been anything. But it was kind of interesting listening to people talk about the “reds” and the “commies.”
There are some good performances. Jean Meyer is the femme fatale (she would eventually marry Howard Hughes and drop out of public life). And Thelma Ritter was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role as a seedy information source.
It was otherwise pretty forgettable.