MovieChat Forums > Pickup on South Street (1953) Discussion > This is NOT film noir! Spoilers!! ...

This is NOT film noir! Spoilers!! IMDB shouldn't list as Film Noir

posted 17 years ago by contact-258
19 replies | jump to latest

I see IMDB has rated "Pickup on South Street" as one of the greatest Film Noir movies. Hello? This movie doesn't even qualify as Film Noir! Yes, the first 60 or 70 minutes were great, but the ending was really cheesy! [Spoiler Alert]. No film that has a happy ending where all the bad guys are sent to jail and our hero and heroine dance joyfully off into Happily Ever After land can really be considered Film Noir. I did NOT like the ending. It felt like pandering to the American Demographic that has to have happy endings in all their movies. It felt trite and cheap after a spectacular beginning to the film. Am I right, or am I just being too picky?

[–] pacificboy 15 years ago

Did you somehow miss the dumbwaiter sequence? It's like a lesson in noir direction.

"My brain rebelled, and insisted on applying logic where it was not welcome."

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] arubi2 13 years ago

It's a noir, if the title doesn't shout film noir to you, you must be an idiot.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rdarin 12 years ago

About the only film IMDB doesn't categorize as film noir is "Singin' In The Rain."

As an afficionado of the genre, I feel you've got to be exclusive. Otherwise...there goes the neighborhood.