A pickpocket (Richard Widmark) steals a woman's wallet on the subway (Jean Peters), but unknown to both of them, it contains top secret American information that was going to be delivered to the Russians. A well connected woman in the underworld (Thelma Ritter) helps the police, the woman, and the pickpocket at various points along the way, but she draws the line at helping communists.
The strength of this film for me came in its cast. Widmark is great in his sneering defiance of the police, and in both seducing and dominating Peters when she seeks him out. Thelma Ritter is great as always, and the scene that starts with her playing Mam'selle on the phonograph next to her bed is excellent. Peters has several fine moments, and the one where she's abused by her handler (Richard Kiley) is intense. The film also moves along efficiently and briskly at 80 minutes, which I liked. Oh, and that shot in the dumb waiter that director (and writer) Sam Fuller gives us! Brilliant.
The weakness is in its implausible actions, most notably just how quickly Peters falls for Widmark, even though that scene where he strokes her face before kissing her is pretty steamy. Maybe it's just a little too brisk for its own good. The whole communist crew seem remarkably weak given the importance of the information. There are other things as well, starting from why she's on the subway to begin with and running all the way through to a ridiculous ending (no doubt in there because of the Production Code), but it gets a little tedious to pick a movie like this apart. You have to enjoy it for what it is, and it's pretty entertaining. Like a lot of noir films, there is a certain baseline level of misogyny though, in this case with Peters either being knocked around or kissed.
I didn't care for the communist scare aspect of the film, and how much this affected the characters (look, even crooks hate commies!), however, I have to give Fuller and studio exec Darryl F. Zanuck credit for standing up to J. Edgar Hoover when he tried to get changes made. I'm not sure this quite lives up to the reputation of being a classic, but watch it for the performances, and its atmosphere.
