TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:30 and 10 a.m. ET is Hugo Haas’ Pickup (1951) with Haas, Beverly Michaels, Allan Nixon and Howland Chamberlain

By David in TN
friday, january 5, 2024 at 7:05:00 p.m. est

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:30 and 10 a.m. ET is Hugo Haas’ Pickup (1951) with Hugo Haas, Beverly Michaels, Allan Nixon and Howland Chamberlain.

Film Noir Guide: “Haas stars as the widowed trainmaster of an isolated railroad station. After his dog dies, the lonely man goes to town to buy a puppy. Instead, he winds up with a gorgeous young bride (Michaels), a gold digger with one eye on Haas’ savings account and another on his handsome co-worker (Nixon).

“Before their marriage, Haas had been experiencing a strange ringing in his ears, and one day, after an argument with his new wife, he suddenly goes deaf. Michaels and Nixon soon become accustomed to flirting with each other as if Haas weren’t there.

“Then, after Haas is struck by a car, he regains his hearing. He rushes home to tell his wife the good news, but wisely decides to keep his recovery a secret after hearing Michaels tell Nixon how she married him for his money.

“Pickup is one of those films you might be embarrassed about liking. The production values are poor and the acting is mediocre. Yet it’s strangely fascinating, and Michaels, a tall leggy beauty, is such fun to watch. Bernard Gorcey, who played Louie Dumbrowski in the Bowery Boys films, has a small role as a carnival worker with a puppy for sale. Pickup marked Czechoslovakian-born Haas’ American directorial debut.”

N.S.: Hugo Haas was a plague on American movies during the postwar period, a real all-mediocre actor-screenwriter-director, dubbed the “foreign Ed Wood.” He had to have a “rabbi” somewhere, at least as financier. Beverly Michaels, on the other hand, had a brief, unsuccessful career, and yet you scratch your head as to why. She was a stunning amazon with an exquisite figure, who played sluts to the hilt.

Maybe her height was the problem? She actually had to lie about her height, claiming to be 5’10” (imdb.com lists her as 5’9”!) when she was more like 6’2.” Red Eddie Mueller once showed a couple of her late husband, director-screenwriter Russell Rouse’s, pictures at a festival. After the screening was over, she knocked on his office door, to thank him for showing her husband’s pictures. Already of a certain age, she still stood taller than Red Eddie, who must have been about 6’1.” Mueller was able to coax her to the stage, where she answered questions from festivalgoers.

In any event, Beverly Michaels had a splendid life, as the center of a brilliant, successful family. Although her first marriage, to Voldemar Vetluguin, was finalized after a mere two-and-a-half years, three years later she married Rouse, who would win an Oscar for best screenplay (Pillow Talk, 1959) during their marriage, and they stayed together until his death 32 years later. She bore Rouse a son, Christopher Rouse, who would eventually win an Oscar as a film editor (The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007).