Sometimes those anti-drug, jazz-soaked neo noirs feature shaky method actors shadowing their shaky guru James Dean, and for a reason... they're coming off heroin... and preachy melodrama ensues...
But this British import starring American Victor Mature only begins that way along with a few jarring murders and noisy nightclubs... And what everything narrows down to is Mature, a U. S. drug enforcement agent, has a vengeful edge since his sister died, and goes after classy drug-smuggling kingpin Trevor Howard, himself after an eventual load of heroin in a port somewhere between all the various countries, from England to Greece to France, yet this was all filmed in Italy while making terrific use of their 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 while of course a beautiful creature, Ekberg wears far too much makeup, and really doesn't provide the femme tatale role as advertised...
PICKUP is really Mature vs Howard, and one of them is desperate, cuts corners, makes shady deals while the practically unscathed villain takes his sweet time.
But this British import starring American Victor Mature only begins that way along with a few jarring murders and noisy nightclubs... And what everything narrows down to is Mature, a U. S. drug enforcement agent, has a vengeful edge since his sister died, and goes after classy drug-smuggling kingpin Trevor Howard, himself after an eventual load of heroin in a port somewhere between all the various countries, from England to Greece to France, yet this was all filmed in Italy while making terrific use of their 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 while of course a beautiful creature, Ekberg wears far too much makeup, and really doesn't provide the femme tatale role as advertised...
PICKUP is really Mature vs Howard, and one of them is desperate, cuts corners, makes shady deals while the practically unscathed villain takes his sweet time.