Pity the poor film noir blogger who has to sit through some pretty lousey movies for completeness sake. Hugo Haas’ Pickup is such a film with a silly derivative plot about an alleged gum-chewing femme-fatale trying to get her hands on the savings of a lonely widowed railway worker. The trash equivalent of The Postman Always Rings Twice has the story end with the dame blowing a raspberry and the hero cuddling a puppy. Seriously.
But there is still mileage in such dross for academics and the organisers of film noir retrospectives. Silver and Ward in ‘Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference’ talk about the re-assertion of patriarchy in their discussion of the film, and the blurb from the Noir City X has the publicist gushing: “A simple but supremely smarmy slice of sleaze from 1950′s sex-noir auteur Hugo Haas. He plays (as usual) an older man in thrall to a young hottie who spends all her time trying to murder him for what little money he has. A timeless tale, made unforgettable by the Amazon in the bullet-bra, slinging sass for all she’s worth—Beverly (Wicked Woman) Michaels! “
You were warned.
Warning taken and accepted. Ha! Yes for completism, some will even risk watching trash. Those are indeed the perils of the trade. The way it all ends up had me going. Retros will also include forgettable titles, that at least allow the critics to issue some negative reviews.
Hi! Could you please tell me where did you watch this movie? It is impossible to find it anywhere.
There is a DVD. Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B009VJ835U/ref=sr_1_5_olp?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1355101998&sr=1-5&keywords=Hugo+Haas&condition=new