cult film freak: VICTOR MATURE AND TREVOR HOWARD BATTLE IN 'PICKUP ALLEY'

Written by James M. Tate / 4/09/2021 / No comments / action , alec mango , anita ekberg , british film noir , drugs , fifties , film noir or melodrama , jazz score , john gilling , maurice browning , trevor howard , victor mature

VICTOR MATURE AND TREVOR HOWARD BATTLE IN 'PICKUP ALLEY'

4/09/2021 | No comment

Poster art for Pickup Alley Year: 1957 Rating: ****

Sometimes those late 1950's anti-drug, jazz-soaked neo noirs feature shaky method actors mimicking shaky legend James Dean, and for a reason... they're coming off heroin... and preachy melodrama ensues. But this British import starring American actor Victor Mature only begins that way...

What everything narrows down to is Mature, a U.S. drug enforcement agent, going after classy drug-smuggling kingpin Trevor Howard, himself after an eventual load of heroin in a port among various countries, from England to Greece to France, yet this was all filmed in Italy while making terrific use of their iconic Roman ruins...

Each place where the trailing Mature winds up has terrific fist-fights and chase sequences manned skillfully by British director John Gilling. Alec Mango plays Howard's scar-faced thug and is a menacing scene-stealer, but only thinks he's tougher than tough-as-nails Anita Ekberg, who Mature is actually following since she's following Howard. And since the bombshell (wearing way too much unnecessary makeup) doesn't provide the femme fatale role as advertised, PICKUP ALLEY is really Mature vs Howard, and one of them is desperate, cuts corners and makes shady deals... while the villain takes his sweet old time.

Trevor Howard in PICKUP ALLEY

Victor Mature with an unnamed beauty in PICKUP ALLEY

Dorothy Alison and The Party's Over actor Maurice Browning

Lionel Murton and Victor Mature in PICKUP ALLEY

Anita Ekberg and Alec Mango in PICKUP ALLEY

Victor Mature in PICKUP ALLEY

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Tags : action , alec mango , anita ekberg , british film noir , drugs , fifties , film noir or melodrama , jazz score , john gilling , maurice browning , trevor howard , victor mature

James M. Tate

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