He Ran All the Way (1951)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

John Berry

Writers (WGA):

Sam Ross (novel)
Dalton Trumbo (screenplay) (front Guy Endore) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

DYNAMITE hits the screen with their kind of love!

Plot:

Nick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is killed, along with a policeman. Nick hides out in a public pool...

Plot Keywords:

Manhunt | Police Officer Killed | Swimming Pool | Shooting | Shot In The Back

Cast

John Garfield	...	Nick Robey
Shelley Winters	...	Peggy Dobbs
Wallace Ford	...	Fred Dobbs
Selena Royle	...	Mrs. Dobbs
Robert Hyatt	...	Tommy Dobbs (as Bobby Hyatt)
Gladys George	...	Mrs. Robey
Keith Hetherington	...	Captain of Detectives
Norman Lloyd	...	Al Molin
Clancy Cooper	...	Stan, newspaper office watchman
Vicki Raaf	...	Marge, Peggy's girlfriend
Robert Karnes	...	Police Lieutenant

Also Known As:

He Ran All the Way Home (UK)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:(Banned) | Sweden:(Banned)

Company:

Roberts Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

This was John Garfield's final film.

Goofs:

Continuity: At about 5 minutes into the movie, Nick Robey shoots a policeman. The loading dock garage door behind the policeman is half up when he is shot. Then, a second later, as he falls off the loading dock, the garage door is nearly closed.

Quotes:

Al Molin: Get the dandruff out of your blood!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The John Garfield Story (2003) (TV)

A bad dream leads to a nightmare for a family.

John Garfield's last film was "He Ran All the Way," about a payroll robber who hides out at a young woman's apartment, frightening and intimidating her family. Shelley Winters, Gladys George, Norman Lloyd, and Wallace Ford also star. This looks to be a small film, written by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo under another name, but I found it very tense and very good with a wonderful performance by Garfield. He's an unwilling robber due to a scary dream the night before, but his friend, Norman Lloyd, forces him to go through with it on the day planned. When Garfield shoots a policeman, he runs to an indoor public swimming pool to get rid of the briefcase and hide. There he meets Shelley Winters. He sticks with her, ends up in the apartment she shares with her parents and her brother and decides to stay.

Ruggedly handsome Garfield portrays a man capable of brutality due to his fear but who is basically good. Unfortunately the family doesn't understand how unloved he feels, and his friendly signals are rejected, causing him to act out. Winters handles a difficult role beautifully - a young woman without much life experience, attracted to this man and terrified for her family. Is her goal to get him away from them, or does she really care for him? Wallace Ford, as the frustrated father who is unable to protect his family, is excellent.

Like another poster, I would have wished for a bigger film as Garfield's last, but in the end, he handed in another excellent performance and elevated the movie. What was ahead for him? Well, he was blacklisted - perhaps his friend Clifford Odets' affirmation that Garfield had never been a member of the Communist party would have helped him, but we'll never know. Garfield died the day after Odets' testimony.