Interpol

Victor Mature stars in Pickup Alley as a drug enforcement officer who has his professional and personal life combined in this film. His sister Dorothy Alison is strangled by Trevor Howard who is a big drug syndicate kingpin that everyone knows about, but who has successfully kept a very low profile. All kinds of police agencies are looking for Howard and now Mature has a personal reason to get him.

Thinking she killed Howard's partner his moll Anita Ekberg is also on the run. She might be the one to lead Mature to Howard so he tails her across several international cities back to New York where the climax takes place.

This idea had already been tried and far more successfully in the Dick Powell noir classic To The Ends Of The Earth where Powell was the drug enforcement agent with no personal axe to grind who follows a drug shipment. We get to see several glimpses of major cities in Europe and of course New York. Nothing that really registers a decent impression.

Pickup Alley was an OK second feature, but will never be a classic. Fans of Mature, Ekberg, and Howard will be satisfied. Best in the film in a small role is Bonar Colleano, exiled American gangster who lives by his wits both as souvenir salesman in Rome and peddler of information to those with a price.

Found in Noir Archive vol 3, this is a watchable English noir that has some perfunctory acting from Mature and Ekberg, along with enjoyable scene chewing from Howard--what a long way from The Third Man and Brief Encounter!--and a terrific cameo from Bonar Colleano, whom I don't recall seeing before.

You won't care about the plot--something to do with international heroin smuggling, a murky subject dealt with carelessly by John Gilling. The interest lies in the locales, which are beautifully shot by Ted Moore, who besides making a half dozen Bond films also won an Oscar for A Man For All Seasons. The catacombs scene might have come from an Orson Welles film, Othello say, it's that evocative.

American narcotics agent Charles Sturgis (Victor Mature) is devastated by his sister's murder. He tracks the killer to be murderous international drug smuggler Frank McNally (Trevor Howard). He follows McNally and his mule girlfriend Gina Broger (Anita Ekberg) to Europe with Interpol's help.

The original British title is Interpol. This may be the earliest movie that I've seen with Interpol being mentioned. In fact, it may be so early that the American release had to change the title to Pickup Alley. I doubt the general public knew anything about Interpol. It's interesting.

I like this movie for all its peripherals. I like the shadow lighting, the cobble stone streets, the crumbling walls, the rooftop chase, the European locations, and the grimy dockyards. As for the story, there are moments but the story is rather flat. The characters are broadly drawn. It's a crime neo-noir B-movie. It has most of the parts, but the overall effect is less than the total.

What a surprise! Launched with no publicity, that I saw, just watched this new Arrow Blue-ray and it is an absolute gem. Anglo-American production from Warwick Films, a company set up in part by fledgling producer, Albert A Broccoli and starring Victor Mature as a not so gentle gentleman and Anita Ekberg, on the cusp of stardom. Both are great, Mature letting fly with his fists at the slightest provocation and Ekberg holding her own well enough and looking marvellous. The noirish narcotics drama moves incredibly fast and covers much ground with fabulous views of New York, London, Rome and the Greek port of Piraeus. Trevor Howard is ever present and the best I've seen him, relishing his role as chief baddie and we even get a raft of smaller parts played by familiar faces including Sid James bookending the film as barman. Excellent.

In the 1950s, American actors were in demand in European films. It seems that it was far cheaper to make movies there and by bringing in one or two big-name or semi-big name American actors the movie would have greater international appeal. So the likes of Richard Basehart, Anthony Quinn and many other mostly B-list actors made there way to Europe, though a few, such as Alan Ladd, were big name stars. Almost as big as Ladd at that time was Victor Mature and here he stars as, what else, an American in Europe!

The film finds American Cop, Charles Sturgis (Mature) in Europe to try to break up an international drug smuggling outfit. His part in the film was at best mildly interesting...as mostly he played the stereotypical angry, blustering American. What WAS interesting was the leader of the baddies. While you don't think of Trevor Howard in such a role, he was vicious and very exciting to watch...and sadly he was barely in the film! As a result of this and a mediocre script, the film has 'time-passer' written all over it and nothing more.