Recently released ex-convict Robert Herbin (Robert Hossein, Rififi) meets Marthe (Lea Massari, L’Avventura), a beautiful Italian woman and her daughter. They share some flirtatious glances and then she invites him back to her home where they discover her husband’s dead body. Unable to bear witness to a crime due to his parole Robert flees. Guilty about her situation Robert stays close by where he discovers the body has inexplicably disappeared.
With its tender depiction of character and relationships director Marcel Bluwal engineers gripping tension with the expertise of Hitchcock and Clouzot. Adapted from the novel by celebrated crime writer Frédéric Dard (Back to the Wall), this is a rare chance to see Paris Pick-up on the big screen.
Film courtesy of Radiance Films and Gaumont SA. Presented in collaboration with BFI Film Audience Network and Film Noir UK.
This screening of Paris Pick-Up (1962) will include an introduction from Film Noir UK.
