Saturday, November 24, 2012

Movie review - "Pickup Alley" (1957) **

Warwick Productions always aimed their films at the American market but were usually recognisably British. This one feels as though it was made in Hollywood - it's set partly in America, almost all the characters are Americans, the treatment feels American, with it's jazzy score and film noir photography.

The plot has interpol detective Victor Mature tracking down drug dealer/murderer Trevor Howard (!) and in hindsight can be seen to foreshadow the James Bond movies: you've got a handsome middle aged chain-smoking agent travelling to various exotic hotspots (Athens, Lisbon, London) chasing after a super villain and getting involved with the villain's girl (Anita Ekberg, who looks like a Bond film). It's not in colour, which is a drag, although there is some location footage.

There's a real lack of sex - Mature and Ekberg don't really have much chemistry - and not a lot of action, mostly a lot of people hanging around in black and white photography looking sweaty. It's more a cop movie than an action tale - there are an awful lot of cops, interrogation scenes and a climactic shoot out at the docks - although it moves along well enough. 

Mature isn't that much - I kept forgetting he was avenging his sister and the "I'm going to defy my superiors to get my man" feels tired, but it is fascinating to watch Trevor Howard playing an action man baddy, shooting people and clambering over rooftops.

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