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.
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.