Academy Awards, USA 1954
| Nominated Oscar | Best Actress in a Supporting Role Thelma Ritter |
Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Samuel Fuller
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)
Pickpocket Richard Widmark ends up with stolen microfilm intended for the Russians. His victim's boyfriend is a spy, and after being bribed comes looking for him. The police are in on it as well, and when she fails to get the film back they tell her what is really at stake. She starts to fall in love with Widmark, but the street smart thief thinks it is just a ruse and milks the film for all the bribe money he can get. However, her boyfriend gets a gun and the game becomes deadly serious. Although Thelma Ritter got the Oscar nomination as a police informant, the entire cast puts on a character acting clinic: Widmark as the pickpocket, Jean Peters as the tough but pretty girl caught in the middle and Richard Kelly as her increasingly desperate boyfriend. Director Fuller portrays all of these marginalized characters with sympathy and keeps the plot moving at a brisk pace.
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