Pick-up

Sylvia Sidney had the unique ability to present herself as both vulnerable and tough as brass, and never more so than here. She is such a sympathetic character from the very first scene. Her Mary/Molly is no nonsense yet idealistic.

Happily paired with George Raft as Harry, she is touching and involving throughout. Harry is an underachieving cab driver who is "satisfied" with the his low-rent life. It is amusing to watch her shove him up the ladder of success even when he does not necessarily see what she's doing.

Because Mary is still married to a con she's afraid to divorce, she and Harry must live together, allowing others to assume they are married. The script does not blanch at this, nor at the heavy sexual aggressiveness of the rich gal who goes after Harry.

Raft, of course, is gorgeous as usual, but here plays rather less worldly and more gullible than is usual for him. Harry's been around the block a few times, but can always get suckered.

Well worth watching, and a nice warm-up for Raft and Sydney's later hookup "You and Me."

It's exciting. It's original. It's crazy but believable. It's beautifully made and like most of Vina Delmar's popular novels, it's the woman who's the hero.

Sylvia Sidney is fabulous in this, she's perfect as the utterly likeable, intelligent and passionate protagonist determined to get what she wants. What she wants is respectability, security ....and George Raft. What she doesn't want is her violent, criminal husband coming back into her life. That unfortunately is exactly what she gets. What she also doesn't want is her boyfriend being seduced by Lilian Bond's sexy society 'it girl' but he's only human and she's Lilian Bond - literally throwing herself at him. It becomes obvious to Sylvia Sidney that Bond is simply using him as a sexual plaything. This is not something George Raft perceives because he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Some people have criticised George Raft for acting like a wooden plank in this but that's exactly what his character needs to be. He's not the lead player in this picture. He is the equivalent of the good looking airhead, the sexy bimbo. The male- female roles are cleverly switched. Like with her fabulous film which made her famous, BAD GIRL, Vina Delmar has written a story from the female perspective. It's Sydney who is calling the shots, it's her who is controlling the narrative, it's her who turns Raft into a success, into what she wants him to be. This isn't quite an early feminist anthem but her star is a strong woman which is exciting and refreshing to see in an early 30s movie.

The court case at the end by the way is both jaw droppingly stupid but also absolutely brilliant - it's got to be seen to be believed.

It's not quite a classic but overall, despite Sylvia Sidney perpetually looking like her cat's just been run over, it's a very positive, uplifting and thoroughly entertaining picture.

I love Sylvia Sidney. She was easily one of the greatest and most underappreciated actresses Hollywood ever had. She should have easily won multiple oscars but supposedly she was hard to work with and the academy looked the other way. Then the studio didnt help her much,as great an actress as he was she was given mediocre scripts and she never made a huge popular movie. She was mostly cast with second rate leading actors and was expected to carry the movie alone. In this one she is paired with second rate leading man George who manages not to ruin this movie which is an acomplishment in itself. The story is likable and so are the characters. This rather obscure little movie is easily one of the best Sylvia Sidney ever did.

Pick up is a truly great Pre-Code movie. The actors make you care about the characters and the story keeps you interested and engaged. I'm presently collecting all of Sylvia Sidney's movies from the 1930's and in my opinion this is one of her finest. Sylvia Sidney's beautiful kind face will make you love her and care about what she is facing.Check it out if you love Pre-Code.

Sylvia Sidney was Paramount's low-class weeper star in this period, with a lower-class accent and a beautiful face that could suffer stoically or break out in helpless tears just when the plot demanded it. In this one, she has just gotten out of prison because she and her husband were involved in a badger game and one of their victims killed himself. Her husband is still in jail and she falls in with George Raft, whose hair is always perfect. They encounter various problems that keep getting worse and worse until they reach the point where you're ready to laugh -- except that Miss Sidney is so perfect in these roles, that you simply want to hug her. George Raft is adequate and for those of you who like such thing, Charles Middleton, best known as Emperor Ming of Mongo is on hand.