南街奇遇

影片一开始便是小偷skip在拥挤的电车上偷走了女主candy包里的皮夹，结果皮夹里装有一份国家机密胶片，这份胶片掌握在共产党组织手中，女士只不过被利用而对胶片和共产党身份的朋友joe毫不知情。然后candy告知了joe自己被偷。害怕机密泄漏，身份暴露的joe要candy想办法找到小偷要回胶片，另一边一个一直跟踪candy的便衣警察目睹了行窃过程后，和同事们试图找到小偷以拿回证物并顺藤摸瓜将共党份子一网打尽。警察找来了贩卖廉价领带的身处社会底层的老妇人moe，moe有偿的提供了8个小偷信息，警察锁定了小偷skip。就这样，小偷skip成为了所有人的目标......candy找到moe询问到了skip的下落，在见到了skip后，candy爱上了skip,而skip一心只想通过胶片敲诈到一大笔钱，并且声称candy是共党份子，这让不知情的candy十分生气。面对巨额的敲诈，心急的joe打算亲自找到skip，而爱上了skip的candy将moe的地址当作skip的地址告诉了joe，并告知了moe的危险劝她离开，但moe并没有逃离，她提醒skip不要和共党产生联系，面对找上门来的joe，moe拒绝透露skip的下落，这是她的底线，面对共党的原则，她死前孤寂而无望的神情极富感染力。而candy为了保护skip不惜打昏了skip拿走胶片交给了警察，警察让她把胶片交给joe，以此引诱joe和同伙行动以便一网打尽。结果因为少了一格胶片，joe愤怒的开枪将candy打伤，而skip来到医院得知candy为了保护自己而中弹后，来了深情一吻，然后在电车上偷走了joe的手枪，并将他和同伙痛扁一番后交给了警察，然后和candy双宿双飞……这是一个典型的黑色电影，一个阴差阳错的事件揭露和激发了各个角色的秘密与欲望。然后以各自不同的出发点产生交集并逐渐将故事推至高潮。而影片中加入的共党以及爱国主义的政治元素实则不过是起到了推动剧情，合理化角色行为的作用，塞缪尔.福勒并不是要拍摄一部政治电影，他只是单纯的想讲好一个故事而已。

这片子在imdb上7.7，算是很高了。 豆瓣上的简洁有大错误，哪里来的电影拍摄，还说是喜剧片，搞得我抱着诙谐的心态看这电影，结果发现完全不对劲…… 又是被奇奇怪怪的简介坑害的观影体验。 这部戏最让人喜欢和留下印象的还是配角们。 moe一段在警察局指认犯人以及临终前的独白十分出色 女主被正在吃饭的那个男的坑钱的那个片段也挺有意思。做个中间人就赚了好多刀，而且还用筷子夹钱。最后没忘吃一个叉烧包。 最后，我还是感到女主对skip的产生情愫而有疑惑……就很迷哎……

Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller, two American moviemakers extraordinaire, were born one year part, both lauded for their distinctive styles, here they offer two ‘50s film-noir features, both concern themselves with a hardboiled male protagonist, whose dismal world-view is softened by a good-hearted female character, but their attitudes couldn’t be more divergent.

In Ray’s ON DANGEROUS GROUND, Robert Ryan plays a tough city cop Jim Wilson, unlike his colleagues, he is a loner, case-hardened by the seedy milieu and seamy riffraff he encounters daily, his occupational hazard begins to tell, as he is more than willing to enforce violence upon those who doesn’t cooperate (suspects and witnesses alike).

Relegated by his superior to investigate an up-state murder case, Jim takes the talking-to with a sneer, but his callous carapace begins to thaw out by Mary Malden (Lupino), the blind sister of the unbalanced offender Danny (Williams). He promises her he will do all in his power to safeguard Danny’s safety (who should be warehoused), while the victim’s grieving father Walter Brent (Bond) bays for blood.

Whether it is a futile promise or not, Jim is impressed by Mary’s poised phlegm and unbowed strength, which awakes his compassion and makes him whole again, a happy ending is hammered out, but not before both are given some headspace in the aftermath. Ray and screenwriter Bezzerides’ straightforward moral lesson is a tad oversimple but Ryan sports the distinction of being a lodestone of masculine gallantry, and Lupino is an exemplar of fortitude and grace, who also pluckily takes the directorial chair when Ray is stricken with a malady.

If Ray’s film is a handsome-made, conventional studio fare from the Hollywood assembly which is adequately instructive (e.g. the film is very prescient to flag up police brutality), Fuller’s PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is far more ebullient and impudent, physical violence erupts at the drop of a hot (don’t blink when women get shot and battered).

Lumping a pickpocket, a stool pigeon, a girl with a questionable past, some commies and red-baiting from the law enforcement into a scramble, this cat-and-mouse game of obtaining a microfilm is a slap on the face of blind patriotism. Skip McCoy (Widmark), an ex-con and hardened pickpocket, is not going to give away the said film he pilfers from Candy (Peters) on the metro simply because it is a treason if he refuses to do so, not if he can exact a handsome payoff from the valuable. No police sweet-talk or coercing can persuade him. He even scoffs at the promise of clean slate from the police captain Dan Tiger (Vye, who look comically miffed and cannot suffer lowlife gladly).

A weasel-faced Widmark has just the right attributes to make Skip a deadbeat hero, he has nothing to lose, doesn’t even live a semblance of a life, he is one cool desperado who doesn’t care about his own life. He is the obverse of Ryan’s toughie Wilson since they belong to the opposites of the law, yet, both are consumed by lonesomeness and cynicism. Here, it is Candy’s unusual fidelity that delivers Skip from his status quo, their growing romance doesn’t have a solid ground, but one can see that Fuller, in spite of the violent, macho world he constructs, is profoundly a sentimentalist, Skip and Candy share that “made-for-each-other” vibe, they are cut from the same cloth and once their paths are crossed, it is only natural they stick together and canoodle whenever they feel like to. Peters really endeavors to deliver Candy’s transition as smooth and persuasive as possible, her voluptuousness is a vulgar one, but that doesn’t cheapen Candy’s heroic act, in a sense, she is the true agency in the movie by demonstrating her affection and loyalty unyieldingly.

There is honor among thieves, even for Moe (Ritter), the wiseacre stoolie (her way of doing business with Captain Tiger is the comic relief the movie is hurt for), she earns her living (and preparing for her death) candidly, no bad blood between her and Skip, and she is more than befuddled when Candy knocks on her door and overshares her feelings.

Ritter is meritoriously nominated for an Oscar on the strength of her impactful impersonation, Moe’s world-weariness is so infectious even though we don’t want to credit it, we cannot help imagining the worst. Moe’s fate also points up how the anti-Red brainwash works (or any kind of brainwash), she is indoctrinated to dislike something she doesn’t even know of, and is killed because of that benightedness, Fuller always knows his way of sending his veiled message.

Both Ray and Fuller show their dab hands, ON DANGEROUS GROUND has several widely impressive landscape compositions while PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is adept at zooming in on the pickpocketing close-ups with rapid editing to simulate veracity. But both films are tainted by its stock designation of characters of both genders, but Fuller’s work leaves more reverberations and betrays his maverick perspicacity.

referential entries: Ray’s THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1948, 7.1/10); Fuller’s THE NAKED KISS (1964, 7.5/10), UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1961, 6.7/10); Max Ophüls’ CAUGHT (1949, 7.7/10).

Title: On Dangerous Ground

Year: 1951

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Film-Noir

Director: Nicholas Ray

Screenwriter: A.I. Bezzerides

based on the novel by Gerald Butler

Music: Bernard Herrmann

Cinematography: George E. Diskant

Editing: Roland Gross

Cast:

Robert Ryan

Ida Lupino

Ward Bonds

Anthony Ross

Charles Kemper

Ed Begley

Sumner Williams

Richard Irving

Cleo Moore

Ian Wolfe

Rating: 6.8/10

Title: Pickup on South Street

Year: 1953

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

Director/Screenwriter: Samuel Fuller

from a story by Dwight Taylor

Music: Leigh Harline

Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald

Editing: Nick DeMaggio

Cast:

Richard Widmark

Jean Peters

Thelma Ritter

Richard Kiley

Murvyn Vye

Willis Bouchey

Milburn Stone

Vic Perry

Rating: 7.5/10