Pickup on South Street

Pickup on South Street (1953) is a Samuel Fuller crime noir you can watch online on iFILM. Small-time pickpocket Skip McCoy lifts a wallet on a New York subway car and walks off with a reel of microfilm he has no use for — except that it contains classified government intelligence being passed to a Communist courier ring. The FBI has been shadowing the woman he robbed for months, and now everyone wants Skip and what he's carrying.

Richard Widmark brings a wiry, street-smart charisma to Skip that keeps you rooting for a man who has no intention of playing hero. Jean Peters plays Candy with more complexity than the period usually allowed: she's been used without fully knowing it, which gives her something to actually act through. Thelma Ritter as the police stool pigeon Moe earned an Academy Award nomination, and the scene where she negotiates the price of information is worth the film alone.

Fuller shot the whole thing with a blunt, unvarnished energy — no romantic polish, just a grubby city where Cold War paranoia runs alongside petty larceny. Eighty minutes, no waste. Stream Pickup on South Street (1953) online on iFILM.