On a warm afternoon in Manhattan, Candy (Jean Peters) hops a packed subway train to rendezvous with her ex-boyfriend, Joey (Richard Kiley), and hand over the "pickup" she's just made for him. Not the brightest bulb, Candy is unaware of both the police officers on her tail and the pickpocket, Skip (Richard Widmark), slipping next to her, ready to open her purse and make off with her "pickup." Later, when Joey loses his cool over Candy's carelessness, she's forced to hit the pavement in search of the thief. Meanwhile, at the local precinct, the cops who followed Candy enlist the help of a crooked necktie peddler, Moe (Thelma Ritter, in an Oscar-nominated turn), who moonlights as their lead "stoolie." Moe quickly fingers the man they saw as Skip, the "cannon" who clipped Candy.

In the urban underworld of Samuel Fuller's Cold War-era Pickup on South Street, there is a certain honor among thieves, informants, b-girls, creeps and cops. Indeed Skip, Moe and Candy are disgusted when they find that the "pickup" Skip clipped is actually microfilm filled with government secrets that Joey plans to hand over to the evil Communists! The three unlikely principals soon find themselves in jeopardy because Joey, a dreaded agent for "the Reds," will kill to get his hands on the microfilm.

A longstanding favorite of filmmakers and film fans alike, Pickup on South Street has been polished and given a deluxe treatment by The Criterion Collection for its DVD debut. Fuller was intent on making the film a gritty, passionate urban drama that would feel as though it had been ripped from the pages of a New York tabloid - a publication not unlike one he wrote for before he became a filmmaker. Fuller worked closely with veteran cinematographer Joseph MacDonald, ASC (My Darling Clementine, Panic in the Streets, Viva Zapata!) to transform the 20th Century Fox backlot into a realistic city and to deftly shape shots of downtown Los Angeles into a credible facsimile of Manhattan.

The Criterion team has done a fairly good job of recreating MacDonald's work; most of the presentation is crisp and represents the cinematographer's gray scale well. However, there are occasional minor blemishes and, during a key scene featuring Moe and Candy, one unforgivable quality-control problem: from 24:44 through 27:19, a hair appears to be caught in the gate of the telecine used to make the digital transfer. The distracting hair flutters about the lower center of the image, repeatedly drawing attention to itself. There seems to be no excuse for this oversight in an otherwise solid presentation. The film's monaural audio track has fared well and is reproduced clearly.

Fortunately, this DVD is loaded with supplements that continue to support Criterion's reputation for serving some of the best materials on the market. In the "top secret" section of the cleverly designed, animated menu is a trove of supplements that highlight not only the making of the film, but also Fuller's remarkable career. These supplements include two excellent interviews with Fuller, one a 19-minute piece from the mid-1990s and the other an 11-minute French short from the 1980s. Also included is a gallery of lively theatrical trailers for several Fuller films, stills and poster-art galleries, and onscreen text articles featuring an interview with Widmark and a biographical piece by Jeb Brody. Last but not least, the package offers a substantial booklet that reprints excellent essays by director Martin Scorsese and writer Luc Sante, along with an excerpt from Fuller's autobiography.

Like many of Fuller's well-crafted films, Pickup on South Street pulses with his one-of-a-kind vitality and retains its tense, often violent edge. Fuller was a great pulp artist who pushed the conventions of the B-movie genre, and his brash, passionate voice lives on in this presentation of one of his most popular creations.