52 Pickup
In the grand tradition of films like Hardcore (Paul Schrader, 1979), Vice Squad (Gary Sherman, 1982) and Savage Streets (Danny Steinmann, 1984), John Frankenheimer’s 1986 crime thriller 52 Pick-Up is grimy, glorious and great! It may make you want a shower after watching it, but it’s worth it. You may never look at certain Los Angeles neighborhoods the same way again (especially the corner of Vine and Santa Monica). But that’s not all bad. The fact is that 52 Pick-Up is a Cannon film expertly steered by the hand of filmmaking legend John Frankenheimer from a novel (and screenplay) penned by crime-fiction luminary Elmore Leonard. Any of these names alone would be enough to give a motion picture promise but all three together? It’s a cinematic experience that will ignite the screen like a truckload of C4. I hope the New Beverly is ready for the fallout!
The media history of 52 Pick-Up began when Elmore Leonard published his novel in 1974. The guys at Cannon Films looked at the property and saw its potential. Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus looked at the basic elements of Leonard’s Detroit, Michigan-based story: crime, extortion, revenge, and violence. This would be a perfect addition to their catalog! So in 1974, they optioned it but had Leonard change some key details. No longer a Midwestern tale, this story was to take place in Tel Aviv. They also changed the title from 52 Pick-Up to The Ambassador. During the New Beverly’s J. Lee Thompson retrospective, my colleague Marc Edward Heuck did a skillful write-up of The Ambassador on the New Bev blog so instead of detailing that film more; I will simply guide you to his piece here.
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- 1948-52 Ford F-1 F1 Pickup CPP Mustang II 2 Complete Front IFS Conversion Kit (Fits: 1952 Ford F1) $1,449.00. $120.00 shipping.
- Audience Reviews for 52 Pick-Up. A good thriller, it's exciting, dramatic, and even scary at times. I actually started to feel sympathy for the blackmailers towards the end of it.
- 52-PICKUP.COM We Love To Talk Trash. 52-PickUp INC (303)697-5812. Trust Us to Handle Your Junk! Let's Be Kind to our Environment.
Some years later, John Frankenheimer approached Cannon about directing the picture. He had read the novel and really gotten into it. If you know Cannon, double dipping wasn’t a problem, especially with a work that had been so drastically altered for the “original release.” The plan for this version was not to change it much at all. In fact, Elmore Leonard would even co-write the screenplay.
Due to weather and budget, they had to change the location from Detroit to Los Angeles, but in 1986 that only made this sleazy neo-noir infinitely grimier. Centering on the indelicate world of strip clubs, pornography, drugs and other fun vices, Hollywood had exactly what they needed. If it didn’t provide on demand, the production could construct it and it would look absolutely natural to the environment – it was ’80s Hollywood, after all. Case in point: the “Live Nude Girls” dirty picture studio that Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) frequents throughout the film. Today it is Meoded Paint store (next to the Yoshinoya on Santa Monica Blvd.). This location has never been a photo studio or anything obscene. The production company slapped up some signage and used the internal space (as you do) and *poof* smut central!
The filmmaking team in Los Angeles had far more access to the adult film world than they would have had in Philadelphia (where they originally started filming). If you watch some of the party scenes, you can see adult film stars Ron Jeremy, Sharon Mitchell and Amber Lynn living it up! It’s pretty wild. Additionally, the now-defunct adult theater that Mitchell enters in order to interrogate Alan Naimy (John Glover), was once part of a thriving Western Ave adult media community. The sex shop across from the theater (visibly recognizable as “Stan’s” when Mitchell enters the movie theater) still exists, a relic to older sleazier days. Take a 52 Pick-Up tour! There’s a taco stand really near there. Have lunch and talk about how awesome Cannon and Elmore Leonard are!
52 Pick-Up’s primary narrative focuses on infidelity, blackmail, and revenge. But plenty of stories that do that. What makes this one unique is that the invocation of vice, debauchery and obscenity become catalysts for a wild revenge story that is unexpected and oh-so-satisfying. Elmore Leonard is an exquisite writer and this story, both on and off screen, proves that point. Fact: Elmore Leonard did a great job of adapting Elmore Leonard. The novel, while quite different in certain respects, was faithfully put on screen. The very best dialogue from the pages of that novel walked right into the script. Leonard’s interest was in portraying the protagonists and their “everyday”ness. This was successful as can be seen in the characters of Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) and his wife of many years, Barbara (Ann-Margret). Set against all of the other…uh, less savory folks we meet, they look fantastic! This is entirely intentional.
What couldn’t have been intentional and something that Leonard had to roll with in the novel-to-script adaptation was the discussion of the home movie element and film formats. In Leonard’s novel, the “blackmail reveal” scene is based on what would be either have been a 8mm or 16mm film projector. Most likely, it would have been 16mm. In 1974, those were the primary home entertainment systems and most people had them. Only a few pages into Leonard’s novel, Harry Mitchell walks into his girlfriend’s apartment (yes, spoiler alert, he’s been cheating on his wife), and hears something from upstairs:
“He identified the sound as he opened the door and there it was, the movie projector going, lamp on, illuminating a hot white square across the room; the screen, set up, waiting. There was the sound and the shaft of light…Even with the stocking over his face the man’s words were clear. He said quietly, ‘Take a seat, motherfucker. It’s Home Movie Time.’” (Fifty-Two Pickup, Elmore Leonard, 1974)
This scene repeats itself in Frankenheimer’s film, but on a wholly different level. Mitchell is commanded to sit down and watch a home movie. Same thing. Same images as described in the book. Same shoving around by hooligans with masks and guns. But it’s not the same technology. Since it’s the 1980s, projectors had since been put away in favor of the ultra fresh, rad and rockin’ VCRs! All films and film tech in 1986’s 52 Pick-Up is VHS-related and Elmore Leonard chose to exploit this moving image format change to make one of his characters even more dynamic, filthy and fun.
In Leonard’s novel, the Alan Naimy character works at an adult movie theater and likes making porno films. But he’s also got some other credits like a bit of business administration education, running illegal abortions, embezzlement and…lewd conduct with minors. He’s a real charmer. Definitely a “take home to the folks” kinda guy. However, most of those things aren’t revealed in the film. What is present is how much he looooooooves making dirty movies. His somewhat over-close attachment to his video camera and obsessive need to film women fucking all the time reiterates his lack of class (at the very least).
With Alan, Elmore Leonard took his own complex literary character description and rendered it into a wholly different kind of fascinating character due to the voyeurism and obscenity relationships, let alone the translation of Alan’s connections from film to digital formats. But Leonard doesn’t make Alan a video guy completely: when Mitchell goes into Alan’s porn theater job to confront him, not only is Alan projecting the film on 35mm (another format to add to the ones we have already seen or read about) but Alan does a reel changeover while the two men are arguing!
Alan is not only intimately tied to 35mm film and theatrically projected smut (working in the porno house) but he’s highly dedicated to his own “artistic vision” on his VHS films. This can be seen most clearly in the scenes where Alan is forcing Mitchell to watch this work against his will. Alan, performing a perverse commentary meant to impress and intimidate Mitchell, is telling him all about the lighting he used in a certain shot and his camera angles while not allowing Mitch to look away. There is something amazing and unusual about the way in which Elmore Leonard updated his novel and explored the character of Alan Naimy, making him deeper and more reflective of a certain 1980s media explosion and (perhaps) terror.
It’s pretty awesome that there is an examination of dirty movie making on VHS and a subtextual exploration/critique of media/media formats in a Cannon film that’s up to its sprocket holes in tits and guns. And don’t worry – as with every Golan/Globus production; there is that absolutely beautiful point where everything goes batshit insane!! Get ready to clap and cheer, y’all!
Elmore Leonard’s source material may be one of the grittiest, grimiest and HFS crime novels I own, and the cinematic rendering of 52 Pick-Up follows suit. Vanity is (of course) a dream on screen, but for my money it’s Clarence Williams III as Bobby Shy who steals every scene he is in. Add Ann-Margret (I really feel for her in this) and my main man Roy Scheider, and you have a winner. Don’t miss this on the big screen. It’s bigtime sleazy fun!
| A game of picking up thrown cards | |
| Alternative name | 52-card pickup, Pickup 52 |
|---|---|
| Players | One to an unlimited number (usually 2) |
| Skills required | Picking up objects, organization |
| Age range | All |
| Cards | 52 (53-54 if jokers are included) |
| Deck | Any (Anglo-American-French typically) |
| Usually not played as a serious game; often done as a prank. | |
52 pickup or 52-card pickup is a practical joke using a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The name has also been used for solitaire card games and for legitimate educational children's games that are based on the fundamental principle of picking up scattered cards or objects.
Rules[edit]
The game requires at least one player who is familiar with the game (the prankster) and one player who wants to be initiated into the game. The prankster presents a deck of cards, and 'unnecessary' cards such as jokers may be removed to give the impression that a legitimate game will be played. The prankster, as 'dealer', then throws the entire deck into the air so the cards land strewn on the floor. The other player must then pick them up.
Variations[edit]
Other card games sometimes transpose into 52 pickup. For an example, a child falling behind in go fish or crazy eights, or bored by a never-ending game of war, can simply declare '52-card pickup!' and sweep all the cards off the table.
One variant has the 'dealer' hold up the deck of cards in one hand in a grip similar to the grip one might use to shuffle the cards. The deck is usually pre-arranged to have a few black cards on the bottom. The 'dealer' instructs the other player(s) to call out 'smoke' if they see a black card, and 'fire' if they see a red. They hold up the deck and take the cards one by one off the bottom as the other player(s) call out 'smoke' ... 'smoke' ... 'smoke' ... and, with the first red card, 'fire!' On hearing 'fire', the 'dealer' riffles the cards (as if to shuffle them) into the air, 'firing' the entire deck of cards toward the other player(s).
The prank is sometimes renamed to adjust for deck sizes other than 52 or to fool someone who is already familiar with the game under its normal name.
Another version of the prank can be played where one player declares '52-card pick up' and is then granted power to throw each of the 52 cards individually at any of the opponents.[1]
As a game[edit]
By introducing additional rules, the task of picking up the cards can be made into a solitaire game. A popular rule of this kind is that only cards from the top of the heap may be removed, and that they must be removed in sets that form poker combinations.
Similarly, a competitive element can be introduced, e.g. when one player must pick up the cards in red suits and another those in black suits. If the cards are substituted with more robust and easily distinguishable objects such as plastic spoons in various colors, the game becomes appropriate for a group of very young children to train locomotive, object control, and recognition skills.[2] Letter or word cards can be used for older children.
A similar game is called 'card rugby' (a cross between 52 pickup and rugby) which involves two teams of people. The dealer has a pack of cards, they then show the teams a card in the pack, e.g. two of spades. The dealer then shuffles the cards and they are thrown into the air. The two teams then must find the card mentioned and the first team to find the card and run to the other end of the room with it and touch down wins.
History[edit]
While written records start later, the prank appears to have been played among children as early as the middle of the 20th century.[3] The Encyclopedia of American Folklore discusses it under 'folk humor' and, confirmed by numerous references in popular cultures, describes it as a 'popular American prank'. It notes that the typical mark for the prank is a very young child who is too keen to be included in play to ask questions.[4] The game is also popular in Germany, where it is known as 32 heb auf and is played with 32 cards.[5] At least one American card game anthology has listed the prank among more formal children's games.[6]
References[edit]
52 Pickup Game
- ^Uhrich, Tabatha A.; McHale-Small, Monica (2002), Simon says... 'Reading is fun!', Scarecrow Press, p. 50, ISBN978-0-8108-4208-3.
- ^McCall, Renée; Craft, Diane H. (2004), Purposeful play; early childhood movement activities on a budget, Human Kinetics, pp. 53–56, ISBN978-0-7360-4641-1.
- ^McLeod, John, ed., 52 pick-up, Card Games Website.
- ^Watts, Linda S. (2007), Encyclopedia of American Folklore, New York: Facts on File, pp. 206f, ISBN978-0-8160-5699-6.
- ^The most common card deck in Germany is the French- or German-suited piquet deck used for skat.
- ^Katz, Nikki, The Everything Card Games Book, Avon: F+W Media, p. 83, ISBN978-1-59337-130-2.