Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller, two American moviemakers extraordinaire, were born one year part, both lauded for their distinctive styles, here they offer two ‘50s film-noir features, both concern themselves with a hardboiled male protagonist, whose dismal world-view is softened by a good-hearted female character, but their attitudes couldn’t be more divergent.

In Ray’s ON DANGEROUS GROUND, Robert Ryan plays a tough city cop Jim Wilson, unlike his colleagues, he is a loner, case-hardened by the seedy milieu and seamy riffraff he encounters daily, his occupational hazard begins to tell, as he is more than willing to enforce violence upon those who doesn’t cooperate (suspects and witnesses alike).

Relegated by his superior to investigate an up-state murder case, Jim takes the talking-to with a sneer, but his callous carapace begins to thaw out by Mary Malden (Lupino), the blind sister of the unbalanced offender Danny (Williams). He promises her he will do all in his power to safeguard Danny’s safety (who should be warehoused), while the victim’s grieving father Walter Brent (Bond) bays for blood.

Whether it is a futile promise or not, Jim is impressed by Mary’s poised phlegm and unbowed strength, which awakes his compassion and makes him whole again, a happy ending is hammered out, but not before both are given some headspace in the aftermath. Ray and screenwriter Bezzerides’ straightforward moral lesson is a tad oversimple but Ryan sports the distinction of being a lodestone of masculine gallantry, and Lupino is an exemplar of fortitude and grace, who also pluckily takes the directorial chair when Ray is stricken with a malady.

If Ray’s film is a handsome-made, conventional studio fare from the Hollywood assembly which is adequately instructive (e.g. the film is very prescient to flag up police brutality), Fuller’s PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is far more ebullient and impudent, physical violence erupts at the drop of a hot (don’t blink when women get shot and battered).

Lumping a pickpocket, a stool pigeon, a girl with a questionable past, some commies and red-baiting from the law enforcement into a scramble, this cat-and-mouse game of obtaining a microfilm is a slap on the face of blind patriotism. Skip McCoy (Widmark), an ex-con and hardened pickpocket, is not going to give away the said film he pilfers from Candy (Peters) on the metro simply because it is a treason if he refuses to do so, not if he can exact a handsome payoff from the valuable. No police sweet-talk or coercing can persuade him. He even scoffs at the promise of clean slate from the police captain Dan Tiger (Vye, who look comically miffed and cannot suffer lowlife gladly).

A weasel-faced Widmark has just the right attributes to make Skip a deadbeat hero, he has nothing to lose, doesn’t even live a semblance of a life, he is one cool desperado who doesn’t care about his own life. He is the obverse of Ryan’s toughie Wilson since they belong to the opposites of the law, yet, both are consumed by lonesomeness and cynicism. Here, it is Candy’s unusual fidelity that delivers Skip from his status quo, their growing romance doesn’t have a solid ground, but one can see that Fuller, in spite of the violent, macho world he constructs, is profoundly a sentimentalist, Skip and Candy share that “made-for-each-other” vibe, they are cut from the same cloth and once their paths are crossed, it is only natural they stick together and canoodle whenever they feel like to. Peters really endeavors to deliver Candy’s transition as smooth and persuasive as possible, her voluptuousness is a vulgar one, but that doesn’t cheapen Candy’s heroic act, in a sense, she is the true agency in the movie by demonstrating her affection and loyalty unyieldingly.

There is honor among thieves, even for Moe (Ritter), the wiseacre stoolie (her way of doing business with Captain Tiger is the comic relief the movie is hurt for), she earns her living (and preparing for her death) candidly, no bad blood between her and Skip, and she is more than befuddled when Candy knocks on her door and overshares her feelings.

Ritter is meritoriously nominated for an Oscar on the strength of her impactful impersonation, Moe’s world-weariness is so infectious even though we don’t want to credit it, we cannot help imagining the worst. Moe’s fate also points up how the anti-Red brainwash works (or any kind of brainwash), she is indoctrinated to dislike something she doesn’t even know of, and is killed because of that benightedness, Fuller always knows his way of sending his veiled message.

Both Ray and Fuller show their dab hands, ON DANGEROUS GROUND has several widely impressive landscape compositions while PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is adept at zooming in on the pickpocketing close-ups with rapid editing to simulate veracity. But both films are tainted by its stock designation of characters of both genders, but Fuller’s work leaves more reverberations and betrays his maverick perspicacity.

referential entries: Ray’s THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1948, 7.1/10); Fuller’s THE NAKED KISS (1964, 7.5/10), UNDERWORLD U.S.A. (1961, 6.7/10); Max Ophüls’ CAUGHT (1949, 7.7/10).

Title: On Dangerous Ground

Year: 1951

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Film-Noir

Director: Nicholas Ray

Screenwriter: A.I. Bezzerides

based on the novel by Gerald Butler

Music: Bernard Herrmann

Cinematography: George E. Diskant

Editing: Roland Gross

Cast:

Robert Ryan

Ida Lupino

Ward Bonds

Anthony Ross

Charles Kemper

Ed Begley

Sumner Williams

Richard Irving

Cleo Moore

Ian Wolfe

Rating: 6.8/10

Title: Pickup on South Street

Year: 1953

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

Director/Screenwriter: Samuel Fuller

from a story by Dwight Taylor

Music: Leigh Harline

Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald

Editing: Nick DeMaggio

Cast:

Richard Widmark

Jean Peters

Thelma Ritter

Richard Kiley

Murvyn Vye

Willis Bouchey

Milburn Stone

Vic Perry

Rating: 7.5/10

Samuel Fuller把Zanuck 給他的原著劇本 Blaze of Glory 改成pickup（除了扒手之外還有好轉(zhuǎn)/回升之意） on the southern street時 整個內(nèi)核都有了改變 。

作為主線的SKIP和CANDY之間的關(guān)系有以下截圖可以看出前后重要的轉(zhuǎn)變：

地鐵上的第一次： SKIP偷CANDY錢包

第二次SKIP擊倒找到地址正在SKIP家尋找膠卷的CANDY

第三次 CANDY出手擊倒 打聽出地址后急著出門做交易的SKIP

晃在前景的危險的吊鉤 使得二人之間的關(guān)系千鈞一發(fā)

第四次：SKIP仰頭望已取得主導(dǎo)的CANDY

即將和SKIP完成新生的CANDY

作為整個事件的推動者MOE的出場

作為出現(xiàn)次數(shù)最多的空間：SKIP漂浮不定的家

FULLER在設(shè)定濃厚的麥卡錫時代 的整部戲 可以通過以下兩出顯見 “延后出鏡”的場面調(diào)度來揣摩其態(tài)度：

回到家 放好唱片 坐在床上 都是MOE單人鏡頭 之后才延后出鏡的那只早就在的那里擱著的腳

結(jié)尾來警官TIGER辦公室的SKIP 完全是正常的二人鏡

辦完事后的SKIP的眼神才顯示畫外第三者的存在

此時才延后出鏡的早就在場的CANDY

框外(場外 目前)觀者永不知的框內(nèi)（場內(nèi) 當(dāng)時）的處境和感受 (危險和幸福的并存)

如果不喜歡塞繆爾.富勒(Samuel Fuller)的電影,那就等于你不喜歡電影....... 他的電影是對影像創(chuàng)造者本人的絕妙展現(xiàn).即使那些激烈的,偏頗的和粗糙的觀點,往往也是出于熱情而不是莽撞..... 當(dāng)你觀看一部富勒作品的時候,你將面對最純粹的電影,跟隨情緒流動的影畫.他的電影總是那么動蕩,暴力,就如我們真正滿懷激情的生活時,生命應(yīng)有的姿態(tài)一樣..... Martin Scorsese preface on Samuel Fuller's < A third face:my tale of writing,fighting,and filmmaking >