''Pickup'' is a 1951 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

written and directed by Czech actor and filmmaker

Hugo Haas Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962. Life and career Haas was born in B ...

. It was the first American film by Haas, a refugee from

German-occupied Europe German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

, who went on to make a series of gloomy noirs about doomed middle-aged men led astray by younger

femmes fatales A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...

. Haas also starred in the film, alongside

Beverly Michaels Beverly Eileen Michaels (December 29, 1927 – June 9, 2007) was an American B-movie actress and Pin-up girls, cheesecake model of the 1950s. Career Michaels began her career at the age of 16 in 1944 as a showgirl at Billy Rose's Diamond Horse ...

Allan Nixon Allan Hobbs Nixon (August 17, 1915 – April 13, 1995) was an American actor and novelist. Career Nixon was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1915. He studied journalism the University of Richmond but left college to play football professiona ...

and

Howland Chamberlain Howland Chamberlin (August 2, 1911 – September 1, 1984) was an American actor. He is sometimes billed as Howard Chamberlin, sometimes replacing the word, land. Chamberlain was born in The Bronx. He moved in the 1930s from New York to Californi ...

Plot

Low-budget ''Pickup'', based on a 1926 novel ''Guard No. 47'' by

Josef Kopta Josef Kopta (16 June 1894 in Libochovice, Bohemia – 3 April 1962 in Prague) was a Czech writer and journalist. Before World War I Kopta worked as a bank clerk. In 1914 he was sent to the Eastern front, in 1915 taken prisoner and later joined C ...

, 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

as Jan Horak *

as Betty *

as Steve *

as Professor *

Jo-Carroll Dennison Jo-Carroll Dennison (December 16, 1923 – October 18, 2021) was an American actress and model who was Miss America 1942. Early years Dennison was born on December 16, 1923, in Florence, Arizona, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Brownd) and Harr ...

as Irma * Mark Lowell as Waiter * Marjorie Beckett as Secretary Doctor * Art Lewis as Driver * Jack Daley as Company Doctor *

Bernard Gorcey Bernard Gorcey (9 January 1886 – 11 September 1955) was a Russian-born American actor. He began in Vaudeville, performed on Broadway, and appeared in multiple shorts and films. He portrayed ice cream shop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski in ...

as Joe

Reception

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine praised Haas as "Hollywood's most promising new moviemaker" since

Stanley Kramer Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a libera ...

, 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. 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 A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...

(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.

References

External links