(1953, b/w) "I'd rather have a live pickpocket than a dead traitor." On the New York subway, grifter Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), only a week out following his third time in the slammer, picks a wallet from a woman's purse while two feds are watching. Director/screenwriter Samuel Fuller's film noir, based on a story by Dwight Taylor, compares criminals with communists.

The feds had their eye on the woman, Candy (Jean Peters), suspected of passing military secrets to the Reds; Skip gets away. She calls Joey (Richard Kiley) when she realizes her wallet's missing; this was to be the last delivery (manufacturing secrets, he tells her, in a cut-throat business) after their breakup. "If you can find that pickpocket," he promises her, "I'll never bother you again."

Police Capt Dan Tiger (Murvyn Vye) brings in Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter), who sells neckties and tips (trying to earn enough to pay for her plot and stone), to identify the cannon. Everybody's gotta eat. After the cops bring in Skip, they try making a deal with him - with three convictions, a fourth could send him to prison for life - to drop the charges in exchange for the microfilm. The big thumb Zara (Willis B. Bouchey) tries waving the flag: "You'll be as guilty as the traitors that gave Stalin the A-bomb."

Through Lightning Louie, Candy gets the Bowery address of "the best pickpocket stoolie," who charges $50 "happy money." Finding someone snooping about his shack, Skip clips Candy's chin. "Take your time looking," she says with a sore jaw. "Want a beer?" he offers.

Grudgingly Tiger proffers a "clean bill of health" if Skip will cooperate: nothing doing. Saying he can't get personally involved, Joey hands Candy a fistful of cabbage ($500): "You started this job. Now finish it." Asking Skip how he became a pickpocket, the petty thief replies: "How'd you get to be what you are?" Treating her tender as chump change, Skip, after warming her lips and filching her heart, gets rough with Candy, demanding 25 grand for trading with commies.

"He's a shifty as smoke," Moe says to the muffin, "but I love him." Candy does too. Time pressing to get possession of the film, Joey's forced to take matters into his own hands. Skip's monetary motive collides with Candy's hard-luck heartache: "You look for oil, sometimes you hit a gusher."

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