Sunday, July 31, 2005
Pick-up (1933)
Director: Marion Gering
See January for: ^Closer; ^The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou;
^Finding Neverland; ^The Aviator
See February for: ^Million Dollar Baby; ^Male and Female;
^Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; ^Love; ^Sunrise; ^Ray
See March for: ^Being Julia; ^Millions
See April for: ^Melinda and Melinda
See May for: ^ Look At Me ^Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room ^Chinatown; ^ Born Into Brothels
See June for: ^Cote d’Azur ^5X2 ^Sabah ^Inlaws and Outlaws ^Peach Girl ^2046
See July for: ^Batman Begins ^ Mad Hot Ballrom ^Heights ^My Summer of Love
*Warning the following analysis contains a discussion of the entire film – including the ending.
Pick-up was part of a Film Forum Series called Paramount Before the Code, meaning films made before the Hayes Code of studio self-censorship was imposed in 1934. Part of the fun of this film series (sadly I only saw 2 films) was to try and find what aspect of these films would have been considered objectionable after The Code was in place. I’m guessing in Pick-up it was the loose morality exhibited around sex, in particular in the sequence when Mary and Harry (Sylvia Sidney and George Raft) go to the swingers party hosted by the young, rich and free-loving neighbor down the road from Harry’s auto garage.
Let me tell you how we get there in this bawdy romping early talkie. As the film opens Mary is being released from jail. Her husband, who is also in jail for ring leading the crime that sent them up, is given a few moments to talk with his wife before she is set free. He asks Mary to wait for him the 3 more years he has in prison and she refuses saying she’s going straight and wants nothing more of him or his crooked buddies.
Mary soon discovers going straight is tough as she ends up homeless and jobless her first day out. Harry, a cabbie, takes her home one night (against his better judgment) to save her from the cold night and pouring rain. They have a bit of tough-guy / stubborn-girl back and forth reminiscent of Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night – tough I must hasten to add nowhere near the magic of the Gable/Colbert chemistry. Of course Harry and Mary slowly fall in love.
And all the while Mary's past is closing in on her. From jail her husband has had his buddies out looking for her in the city all the while. Mary is aware of her vulnerability in the city and fights with Harry to quit his job as a cabbie and open his own auto shop in the country. She is motivate both by a desire to see Harry do well and to flee the city where she is sure she will one day be discovered. Mary has told Harry she is married, but has not disclosed the whole truth of her criminal past. (Harry and Mary living together, especially while Mary is still married would have been a red flag in the days after The Code.)
They do escape to the country but ironically that is Mary's undoing in two ways. One, her husband's buddy happens upon Mary while out for a country drive, and two, Harry gets seduced by the free-loving rich neighbor whom he meets while fixing her car. The sequence when Harry and Mary go to the decadent and raunchy swingers party is indeed outrageous. It is only suggested, but clearly suggested, that these wealthy folk are having a drunken orgy and Harry is in way over his head. The young, rich neighbor is turned on by Harry, at least for the moment and she seduces Harry. Harry, being naive to the ways of the swinging upper classes takes the sex as an act of love and tells the neighbor-girl he wants to marry her. She, however, laughs at his earnestness. This is all conveyed with early 1930s double talk, winks and nods but the jist of the debauchery is clear and not what you have come to expect from golden-age Hollywood. The free wheeling nature of 1930-1933 Hollywood is made pretty clear in this one film. The fact that Pick-up is so startlingly sexual when compared with what we expect from typical 'black and white Hollywood' of 1933-1950 clearly shows the effect of The Code.
Anyway, in the end, of course, Mary and Harry patch things up and marry.
Oh, but first Mary's husband breaks out of jail, kidnaps Mary but is shot and killed by her. Harry has to sell all his possessions to pay for a lawyer to save Mary and he ends up back where he began as a cabbie. A cute final scene of Mary and Harry starting again where they began - Mary leaving jail and getting into Harry's cab. They drive off , happily ever after.
A tidy ending to a wild film.
Should you see it? Absolutely, even if only to see the wild swingers party as depicted in 1932.
See January for: ^Closer; ^The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou;
^Finding Neverland; ^The Aviator
See February for: ^Million Dollar Baby; ^Male and Female;
^Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; ^Love; ^Sunrise; ^Ray
See March for: ^Being Julia; ^Millions
See April for: ^Melinda and Melinda
See May for: ^ Look At Me ^Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room ^Chinatown; ^ Born Into Brothels
See June for: ^Cote d’Azur ^5X2 ^Sabah ^Inlaws and Outlaws ^Peach Girl ^2046
See July for: ^Batman Begins ^ Mad Hot Ballrom ^Heights ^My Summer of Love
*Warning the following analysis contains a discussion of the entire film – including the ending.
Pick-up was part of a Film Forum Series called Paramount Before the Code, meaning films made before the Hayes Code of studio self-censorship was imposed in 1934. Part of the fun of this film series (sadly I only saw 2 films) was to try and find what aspect of these films would have been considered objectionable after The Code was in place. I’m guessing in Pick-up it was the loose morality exhibited around sex, in particular in the sequence when Mary and Harry (Sylvia Sidney and George Raft) go to the swingers party hosted by the young, rich and free-loving neighbor down the road from Harry’s auto garage.
Let me tell you how we get there in this bawdy romping early talkie. As the film opens Mary is being released from jail. Her husband, who is also in jail for ring leading the crime that sent them up, is given a few moments to talk with his wife before she is set free. He asks Mary to wait for him the 3 more years he has in prison and she refuses saying she’s going straight and wants nothing more of him or his crooked buddies.
Mary soon discovers going straight is tough as she ends up homeless and jobless her first day out. Harry, a cabbie, takes her home one night (against his better judgment) to save her from the cold night and pouring rain. They have a bit of tough-guy / stubborn-girl back and forth reminiscent of Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night – tough I must hasten to add nowhere near the magic of the Gable/Colbert chemistry. Of course Harry and Mary slowly fall in love.
And all the while Mary's past is closing in on her. From jail her husband has had his buddies out looking for her in the city all the while. Mary is aware of her vulnerability in the city and fights with Harry to quit his job as a cabbie and open his own auto shop in the country. She is motivate both by a desire to see Harry do well and to flee the city where she is sure she will one day be discovered. Mary has told Harry she is married, but has not disclosed the whole truth of her criminal past. (Harry and Mary living together, especially while Mary is still married would have been a red flag in the days after The Code.)
They do escape to the country but ironically that is Mary's undoing in two ways. One, her husband's buddy happens upon Mary while out for a country drive, and two, Harry gets seduced by the free-loving rich neighbor whom he meets while fixing her car. The sequence when Harry and Mary go to the decadent and raunchy swingers party is indeed outrageous. It is only suggested, but clearly suggested, that these wealthy folk are having a drunken orgy and Harry is in way over his head. The young, rich neighbor is turned on by Harry, at least for the moment and she seduces Harry. Harry, being naive to the ways of the swinging upper classes takes the sex as an act of love and tells the neighbor-girl he wants to marry her. She, however, laughs at his earnestness. This is all conveyed with early 1930s double talk, winks and nods but the jist of the debauchery is clear and not what you have come to expect from golden-age Hollywood. The free wheeling nature of 1930-1933 Hollywood is made pretty clear in this one film. The fact that Pick-up is so startlingly sexual when compared with what we expect from typical 'black and white Hollywood' of 1933-1950 clearly shows the effect of The Code.
Anyway, in the end, of course, Mary and Harry patch things up and marry.
Oh, but first Mary's husband breaks out of jail, kidnaps Mary but is shot and killed by her. Harry has to sell all his possessions to pay for a lawyer to save Mary and he ends up back where he began as a cabbie. A cute final scene of Mary and Harry starting again where they began - Mary leaving jail and getting into Harry's cab. They drive off , happily ever after.
A tidy ending to a wild film.
Should you see it? Absolutely, even if only to see the wild swingers party as depicted in 1932.
