He Ran All the Way

source: He Ran All the Way

Trailer—He Ran All the Way

He Ran All the Way

Small-time hood (John Garfield), on the run after shooting a cop during a robbery, meets an unsuspecting girl (Shelley Winters) who invites him back to her apartment. There he takes her and her family hostage while he figures out his next move. John Garfield's last film features another fine performance from him. This probably wasn't a very challenging role for Garfield. It's similar to the types of roles he played early in his career. Perhaps a little edgier and lacking charm or humor. This character's a paranoid wreck. The rest of the cast is good, with Wallace Ford a standout as Winters' father. It's a decent thriller with a fairly routine plot, elevated by the James Wong Howe photography and an exciting score by Franz Waxman.

Worth seeing if for no other reason than Garfield's frantic, breathless performance. The storytelling is unsure at times, but his acting sure isn't. The guy performs as if he's looking straight down the barrel of a loaded shotgun. He really lets it fly over the film's very powerful last ten minutes. Also, Shelly Winters is much more effective here, in a role she virtually perfected (as the lonely, whimpering victim) than she was in the classic "A PLACE IN THE SUN", which also came out that year.

It's a real shame that John Garfield's career had to end with a film like this. It's NOT a bad film, in fact there are many other than myself that think it's an excellent film. It's just that it does nothing to show the true range of Garfield as an actor as the character he plays is nearly identical to the ones he played in the early part of his career with Warner Brothers (when he played gangster roles which were almost equally suited to Cagney, Raft or Bogart). This is yet another hoodlum flick. Garfield is hurt while pulling a heist and hides out in an apartment by taking a family hostage. The plot is very similar to The Desperate Hours, though The Desperate Hours pulled this off much better--thanks to better writing and better supporting actors. So I am not saying you should not watch the film, just that there are better films by John Garfield.

John Garfield's character in this movie makes his character in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE look like Mr. Easy Going. He's tight as a drum from the opening scene with his nasty mother, through the holdup (with snaky Norman Lloyd as his partner), his flight, and the long scenes with Shelley Winters' family. Winters is appealing in her role as the plain girl who can't find a man. She falls for the dangerous and casually violent Garfield; but is she really in love with him or trying to assist in his capture? That's where the tension lies in this short thriller. Dalton Trumbo (uncredited as screenwriter) creates good dialog for all the cast members, and pulls together an exciting final 5 minutes with a few plot twists and a gut-wrenching ironic final shot. Catch it if you can, if you're a noir fan.

Petty thief Nick Robey (John Garfield) is concerned about his partner Al's plan for a big score. It goes badly. Nick is on the run with the $10k payroll after Al gets shot by the cops. He hides in the local pool where he befriends Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters). He gives her a lift home. She forgets her purse and he retrieves it for her. As his fear of the cops grow, he takes her family hostage. Garfield delivers a brilliant performance in his last movie before his death following his refusal to name names. He has a dark disturbed interior but still maintains a glint of humanity. I can see that he's a forerunner to the era of emotional truth acting. He does a good paranoia. It's sad to know that this is Garfield's last movie and what could have been. Winters is also good with a mixture of defiance and fear. The performances elevate this simple crime noir.

"He Ran All The Way" is John Garfield's final film and he doesn't disappoint his fans. He is dynamic as a cop killer who is on-the-lam and hiding out in the apartment of a middle class family. The film is a taut thriller with many tense moments and Garfield pulls no punches while he devises an escape plan. The captive family is well played by Shelley Winters who falls for the thug, Wallace Ford and Selena Royle her parents and Bobby Hyatt the little brother. There is also a gem of a cameo performance from Gladys George as Garfield's mother and also by Norman Lloyd as his partner in crime. Alas Garfield displays all his bad boy mannerisms and gut wrenching force that we came to expect from him...and what also made him a star.

Shot on what was clearly a small budget, this "noir" style thriller is a little "loose limbed" in the writing department, but good direction, good location cinematography, Waxman's superb score (you know this is an above average film score from the first notes) and some of the best screen acting on film pull it off in style. The director manages to mesh the differing acting styles (Garfield and Winter's more internal, "method" influenced style, Royle's more technical approach and Ford's purely instinctive playing) and creates a real ensemble. One can read the actors' minds just from a telling turn of the eye, curl of the lip. Wonderful. Everyone impresses, but Winters is most sensational, showing us the character's mixed-up feelings about the magnetic, sexy character Garfield plays right from the first accidental encounter.