NYC Noir Double Feature: Kiss of Death and Pickup on South Street

The next double feature that I was lucky to see was the matching pair of "Kiss of Death" and "Pickup on South Street," which both share the actor Richard Widmark, who is also new to me. Aside from this actor, I can't really find a common link, aside from the overall genre of the two films, as these are two noirs from a different bag. First up was "Kiss of Death," from 1947:

Kiss of Death (1947) **1/2
Directed by Henry Hathaway

Now I was recently introduced to Victor Mature earlier in the week with the very entertaining, but imperfect, "I Wake Up Screaming." Here, six years later, he has matured (no pun intended) with a more serious and less playful role as the flawed hero Nick Bianco. After a jewel heist gone bad, Nick is sent to jail where he is asked to rat on the other three people that were involved in the heist. He decides that he will when one of the members, the rat Tommy Udo, ends up abusing his wife until she decides to kill herself, and he also wants to protect his two children.

"Kiss of Death" is slow, almost painfully slow to an extent. It does take its sweet time telling this story, often lingering on one scene for more time than is needed. Mature is fantastic here, and it was no surprise that I read that this is often cited his best role, as it is also filled with much depth. Compared to "I Wake Up Screaming," which seemed a less serious murder story-with him being the charming lead with the charming smile etc-this is much more heavy, and this character is filled with as much flaw as their is good. But in the end it lost some impact just because of the pacing, and the second half just seemed to drag on and drag. Actor Richard Widmark, in his first film role, is great as Tommy Udo, one of the sickest characters I've seen in the genre, and he barely even gets any screen time. But when he is revealed in between the closed door, the shot is just plain chilling.

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Pickup on South Street (1953) ***
Directed by Samuel Fuller

"Pickup on South Street" certainly has a lot of things going on, and it passes the eighty minutes without question. A pickpocket who is a week out of jail ends up getting caught after he steals a wallet out of a woman's purse. The wallet happens to have a scientific chemical formula that the woman was delivering for her ex-boyfriend to enemy agents, and she was being followed by the government who had their suspicions about her. And in her quest to get it back, she ends up falling in love with him. And so we have our mystery-what is so important about this formula? We have our love story. We have our police detective tail. And we have some wonderful comedy, often provided by Thelma Ritter's character of Moe, an informant who demands a certain amount of money for her services as the cost of living increases.

Here, six years after "Kiss of Death," Widmark plays the lead pickpocket-Skip McCoy. Widmark has this certain look about him-not trustworthy and yet oddly comforting. And he plays the two faced character so well-one who seems to want to change his ways, and yet one who will obviously do anything he can to save his own neck. Jean Peters as Candy is lovely, and this film has fun with the closeup making her look like a complete angel. "Pickup on South Street" is only eighty minutes long, but there is so much going on that it seems to just fly by. This is a bit more of a playful noir, with does not exactly make New York the seedy and sick place that 'Kiss of Death" paints it to be. It still is seedy, with its odd mixture of characters, but the core love story paints it as a place of hope, where everyone is possible for a change.

For more information on the NYC Noir Series, visit the Official Film Forum Website!