Steineded How sad is this?

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kirpianuscus Drugs, Anita Eckberg and Victor Mature. and, at the first sigh, nothing more. because something missing to transform the film in more than ordinary crime. sure, few scenes are more than interesting. few performances are real inspired. but all seems be too well known. the girl, the bad guy, the detective. Victor Mature seems prisoner of a sort of sketch of his roles. Trevor Howard is the basic pillar of the film but in few scenes he is uninspired used. the film is out of emotion or real interest. nothing bad. if you ignore its potential.

classicsoncall Seems to me the title of the picture should have been saved for a noir tale, what with the inference of a sleazy femme fatale. One could make the case if hard pressed enough, since Anita Ekberg got pushed around considerably, but with the quickly changing venues from New York to a handful of European cities, the pace was just a bit too hasty for a noir treatment. I really dug the opening New York City street scene filled with era marquees and storefronts, that was pretty cool.Victor Mature puts in an earnest performance as the hard bitten Narcotics Bureau detective on the trail of an international drug kingpin. Fueled by the murder of his sister by the notorious Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), Charles Sturgis (Mature) makes it his personal mission to bring the gangster to justice, even if he has to hop half way around the world to do it.You know, if you never get a chance to see the Roman catacombs, pretty much all you have to do is tune in to this flick. The tour guide gives you a pretty good rundown on everything you need to know before you ever get there.The main thing that impressed me here was that wild rooftop chase right after McNally did in his partner Salko (Alec Mango). When McNally lit out on that slanted runway he slid more than half way down before getting back his footing. I had to wonder if it was planned that way or the stunt guy really slipped and played it out to a conclusion. The same with the cops who high tailed it right after him. That was some nifty stunt work.Well after rolling out the barrels for McNally, Sturgis gets his man, but I couldn't help feeling that the finale was somewhat anticlimactic. I thought McNally was a lot smarter than getting ID'd by a narc detective, and he probably should have just dropped the getaway effort until it was a safer bet. When all was said and done, the pickup alley of the title never came into play, the bad guy got nailed right out in the open.

MartinHafer In the 1950s, American actors were in demand in European films. It seems that it was far cheaper to make movies there and by bringing in one or two big-name or semi-big name American actors the movie would have greater international appeal. So the likes of Richard Basehart, Anthony Quinn and many other mostly B-list actors made there way to Europe, though a few, such as Alan Ladd, were big name stars. Almost as big as Ladd at that time was Victor Mature and here he stars as, what else, an American in Europe!The film finds American Cop, Charles Sturgis (Mature) in Europe to try to break up an international drug smuggling outfit. His part in the film was at best mildly interesting...as mostly he played the stereotypical angry, blustering American. What WAS interesting was the leader of the baddies. While you don't think of Trevor Howard in such a role, he was vicious and very exciting to watch...and sadly he was barely in the film! As a result of this and a mediocre script, the film has 'time-passer' written all over it and nothing more.

bkoganbing Victor Mature stars in Pickup Alley as a drug enforcement officer who has his professional and personal life combined in this film. His sister Dorothy Alison is strangled by Trevor Howard who is a big drug syndicate kingpin that everyone knows about, but who has successfully kept a very low profile. All kinds of police agencies are looking for Howard and now Mature has a personal reason to get him.Thinking she killed Howard's partner his moll Anita Ekberg is also on the run. She might be the one to lead Mature to Howard so he tails her across several international cities back to New York where the climax takes place.This idea had already been tried and far more successfully in the Dick Powell noir classic To The Ends Of The Earth where Powell was the drug enforcement agent with no personal axe to grind who follows a drug shipment. We get to see several glimpses of major cities in Europe and of course New York. Nothing that really registers a decent impression. Pickup Alley was an OK second feature, but will never be a classic. Fans of Mature, Ekberg, and Howard will be satisfied. Best in the film in a small role is Bonar Colleano, exiled American gangster who lives by his wits both as souvenir salesman in Rome and peddler of information to those with a price.