Pickup Alley

Paunchy and worn out Victor Mature basically sleep walks through the film. Trevor Howard steals the show, even though he overplays the psycho bit. If you are a fan of either man, which I am, you will enjoy this flick. If not, watch the French Connection, it is similar in theme, but a thousand times better.

What a surprise! Launched with no publicity, that I saw, just watched this new Arrow Blue-ray and it is an absolute gem. Anglo-American production from Warwick Films, a company set up in part by fledgling producer, Albert A Broccoli and starring Victor Mature as a not so gentle gentleman and Anita Ekberg, on the cusp of stardom. Both are great, Mature letting fly with his fists at the slightest provocation and Ekberg holding her own well enough and looking marvellous. The noirish narcotics drama moves incredibly fast and covers much ground with fabulous views of New York, London, Rome and the Greek port of Piraeus. Trevor Howard is ever present and the best I've seen him, relishing his role as chief baddie and we even get a raft of smaller parts played by familiar faces including Sid James bookending the film as barman. Excellent.

Bad acting Bad writing Badly shooted scenes. All around shamefull display of a movie if you can even call it such. This is something you want to turn off after minutes and you cant make it half way.

Producers: Irving Allen, Albert R. Broccoli. A Warwick Production, released through Columbia Pictures. Copyright 1957 by Warwick Film Productions. No New York opening. U.S. release: August 1957. U.K. release: 6 May 1957. Australian release: 10 October 1957. The full 94 minutes version was released only in Australia. Elsewhere the film was cut to slightly less than 92 minutes. U.K. release title: INTERPOL. U.S.A. release title: PICKUP ALLEY. Australian release title: INTERNATIONAL POLICE. SYNOPSIS: The United States Anti-Narcotics Squad smashes an international drug ring. VIEWERS' GUIDE: Adults. COMMENT: A superior thriller, "Pickup Alley" challenges the best efforts of Samuel Fuller and other masters of American noir who are still spoken of so reverently today. But John Gilling seems to be forgotten. Yet his reliance on Ted Moore's and Stan Pavey's fantastic camera-work, plus taut editing and his own bravura compositions, signal that he is not only a master of the CinemaScope image but a potent creator. Despite familiar script material, he has directed in such a well-knit yet breathtakingly machine-gun-paced style, everything we see on the screen all seems totally topical. OTHER VIEWS: Despite extensive location shooting in London, Paris, Rome, Athens and New York, and an elaborate, elliptical sub-Welles plot, this film suffers from obvious and unresourceful type-casting, though Trevor Howard plays with jaded relish. – Monthly Film Bulletin.

American British co-production, released as Picket Alley on USA and Interpol on UK, Mature plays Charles Sturgis an American policeman from US narcotics department, when his sister who works as informer, was killed before to reveal the identity of the smuggler's Boss in New York, now he got starts again from scratch, the new clue nothing less than the beauty Anita Ekberg as Gina Bolder a delivery girl, they track down his steps, a long journey through Lisbon, Rome, Greece and finally back to New York, this picture goes far beyond the standards known, Charles Sturgis tireless pursuit of his unknown target, the long waiting romance between he and Gina Bolder never Happens, actually she plays a cold women, pressure by his Boss, due she committed a murder of his former old partner, the highlights coming from of nowhere, the Italian character Amalio played by the big mouth Bonar Colleano brings some relief on the plot, also a bit humor neither, Trevor Howard was fabulous as the slippery man, moving each couple days, unknown face, a hard assignment really, interesting picture!! Resume: First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 7

Drugs, Anita Eckberg and Victor Mature. and, at the first sigh, nothing more. because something missing to transform the film in more than ordinary crime. sure, few scenes are more than interesting. few performances are real inspired. but all seems be too well known. the girl, the bad guy, the detective. Victor Mature seems prisoner of a sort of sketch of his roles. Trevor Howard is the basic pillar of the film but in few scenes he is uninspired used. the film is out of emotion or real interest. nothing bad. if you ignore its potential.

In the 1950s, American actors were in demand in European films. It seems that it was far cheaper to make movies there and by bringing in one or two big-name or semi-big name American actors the movie would have greater international appeal. So the likes of Richard Basehart, Anthony Quinn and many other mostly B-list actors made there way to Europe, though a few, such as Alan Ladd, were big name stars. Almost as big as Ladd at that time was Victor Mature and here he stars as, what else, an American in Europe! The film finds American Cop, Charles Sturgis (Mature) in Europe to try to break up an international drug smuggling outfit. His part in the film was at best mildly interesting...as mostly he played the stereotypical angry, blustering American. What WAS interesting was the leader of the baddies. While you don't think of Trevor Howard in such a role, he was vicious and very exciting to watch...and sadly he was barely in the film! As a result of this and a mediocre script, the film has 'time-passer' written all over it and nothing more.

Seems to me the title of the picture should have been saved for a noir tale, what with the inference of a sleazy femme fatale. One could make the case if hard pressed enough, since Anita Ekberg got pushed around considerably, but with the quickly changing venues from New York to a handful of European cities, the pace was just a bit too hasty for a noir treatment. I really dug the opening New York City street scene filled with era marquees and storefronts, that was pretty cool. Victor Mature puts in an earnest performance as the hard bitten Narcotics Bureau detective on the trail of an international drug kingpin. Fueled by the murder of his sister by the notorious Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), Charles Sturgis (Mature) makes it his personal mission to bring the gangster to justice, even if he has to hop half way around the world to do it. You know, if you never get a chance to see the Roman catacombs, pretty much all you have to do is tune in to this flick. The tour guide gives you a pretty good rundown on everything you need to know before you ever get there. The main thing that impressed me here was that wild rooftop chase right after McNally did in his partner Salko (Alec Mango). When McNally lit out on that slanted runway he slid more than half way down before getting back his footing. I had to wonder if it was planned that way or the stunt guy really slipped and played it out to a conclusion. The same with the cops who high tailed it right after him. That was some nifty stunt work. Well after rolling out the barrels for McNally, Sturgis gets his man, but I couldn't help feeling that the finale was somewhat anticlimactic. I thought McNally was a lot smarter than getting ID'd by a narc detective, and he probably should have just dropped the getaway effort until it was a safer bet. When all was said and done, the pickup alley of the title never came into play, the bad guy got nailed right out in the open.

This was an interesting film which starred Victor Mature, (Charles Sturgis) who was a US Narcotics Agent working with Interpol in order to catch a large dope smuggling operation. Gina Broger, (Anita Ekberg) played a young gal who was working with a big shot dope king, Frank McNally, (Trevor Howard) and was only working with him because he kept her against her will and would not let her go. There is plenty of travel into Lisbon, Greece and New York and it seemed at times that Charles Sturgis was running around in circles. Trevor Howard gave a great supporting role along with Anita Ekberg, but this film was definitely a low budget film and because this was a 1957 film, the gals all wore skirts down to their ankles.

This film suffers from a script which relies on cliches from other superior films of this genre.Trevor Howard makes an uninspiring and unconvincing villain.Anita Ekberg simply cannot act.Vincent Mature is at times lethargic at the fag end of his career. This was an A picture,at least in the UK.However it is directed by John Gilling as if it was one of his B features.