S2 Ep. 6: Pickup on South Street (1953, Samuel Fuller) w/ guest Stephen Gillespie
About this episode
The episode discusses Samuel Fuller's film 'Pickup on South Street' with guest Stephen Gillespie, exploring its themes of Cold War paranoia and American ideology.
"Are you waving the flag at me?" The Cold War Cinema team returns to look at Samuel Fuller's 1954 noir masterpiece, Pickup on South Street , with special guest Stephen Gillespie, film critic and cohost of The STACKS and I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things. When small-time thief Skip McCoy picks the wrong pocket on a busy subway car, he quickly becomes the most popular lowlife in town, trailed by crooked cops, the feds, and a Communist spy ring. Join Stephen and hosts Jason Christian and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: Why J. Edgar Hoover hated this movie. How the film makes sense of Cold War paranoia through its critique of American ideological systems Pickup on South Street 's depiction of the down-and-out and three-time losers that populate America's urban landscapes, and how the film suggests they got there. Writer-director Samuel Fuller's provocative and ultimately idealist politics _____________________ Each episode features book and film recommendations for further exploration. On this episode: Stephen recommends Samuel Fuller's film Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972) and Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret (2011). Paul recommends Samuel Fuller's film I Shot Jesse James (1949) and…
People in this episode
Hosts: Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, Paul T. Klein
Guest: Stephen Gillespie
Topics covered
- Cold War cinema
- film critique
- noir films
- American ideology
- urban landscapes
- Samuel Fuller
Keywords
- Cold War
- noir
- Samuel Fuller
- film analysis
- urban decay
- ideological critique
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Pickup on South Street, Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street, Margaret, I Shot Jesse James, The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess, Shock Corridor, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War
More episodes of Cold War Cinema
- Bonus: New German Cinema and the Red Army Faction w/ guest Ryan Ruby
- Bonus: Interview w/ Dr. Alice Lovejoy
- S2 Ep. 12: Seconds (1966, John Frankenheimer) w/ guest Adam McKay
- S2 Ep. 11: Letter Never Sent (1959, Mikhail Kalatozov)
- S2 Ep. 10: The Searchers (1956, John Ford) w/ guest Aspen Ballas
- S2 Ep. 9: Ballad of a Soldier (1959, Grigory Chukhray)
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