The Running Man (1963)

Sadly Over-hyped

Just perfect...

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Coming up to 1,500 reviews,I began looking for lesser-known films by directors who I'm a fan of. Finding The Third Man and Odd Man Out to be magnificent Film Noir's,I was excited to learn that director Carol Reed had actually made a third "Man in hiding" title, which led to me putting my running shoes on.The plot:Faking his death,Rex Black arranges with his wife Stella to run an insurance scam. Sneaking home after he starts to get the plan rolling, Rex finds insurance agent Stephen Maddux presses Stella on what happened to her husband. Fearing they may get caught, Rex gets Stella to agree to take a "holiday" to Spain,so the cash can be sorted out there. Arriving, Stella and Rex (under an alias and fake Aussie accent) get set to celebrate, but discover an unexpected holiday guest has joined them.View on the film:Sailing to the film after experiencing his own mutiny on Mutiny on the Bounty, director Carol Reed (who got $200,000 for leaving the Bounty) steps out of the Film Noir shadows with cinematographer Robert Krasker for an elegant sunset Thriller. Filmed on location, Reed and Krasker give the Black's holiday a dusty/sand appearance,which slowly grates into the movie an atmosphere of sinister mind-games behind the warm holiday snaps brightness. Touring the side streets and towns with the trio, Reed stylishly use the cramped streets and the locals going about their daily lives to frame Rex and Maddux narrowly looking over each others shoulders. Giving a Noir mood via opening with an extended flashback, John Mortimer (who wrote Buddy Lake is Missing) gives this Shelley Smith adaptation an extremely strong Patricia Highsmith flavour, (minus her homoerotic overtones!) Slithering round each other like vipers, Mortimer centres this running man on the deep mistrust between Rex and Maddux, where the smiles of the pretty boys barely hides their desire to stamp the other out, and always keeping their guard up. Whilst the ending has an ill-fitting light atmosphere, Mortimer builds up the cracks in the Black's marriage from Rex's rogue charms, and sharply changes Stella's perspective of "holiday guest" Maddux.Catching the eye of every man when sunbathing on her holiday, Lee Remick gives a great performance as Stella. Partners in crime with Rex, Remick makes Stella standout as the only woman in the trio with a subtle softening,from being on edge at the mere sight of Maddux, to showing warmth to both of them. Entering as the outsider, Alan Bates relishes in making every glance or twitch of Maddux suggest that he might be about to stop the Black's in their tracks. Playing games to keep everyone off his tracks, Laurence Harvey gives a fantastic performance as Rex, thanks to Harvey making Rex's poor attempts to hold a fake Aussie accent separate the charismatic cad, with the murky, calculating running man.

This movie surprised me. It started out as one type of movie and ended up as another - it was a pleasant enough surprise though.Laurence Harvey plays charter pilot Rex Black who fakes his death allowing his wife, Stella, to claim the insurance. Although Harvey was not particularly loved by many of his peers, he made some great movies. I always liked him and his Rex Black is cocky and edgy.Lee Remick plays Stella. Time spent watching Lee Remick on the screen is never wasted. She was an actress whose abilities were sometimes under-appreciated because she was so beautiful. She is as disarming here as she was in everything she did.Alan Bates plays Stephen Maddux, an insurance agent who investigates Rex's death and later fancies Stella when they cross paths in Spain - he thinks she is a widow, and Rex assumes another identity. Bates plays it low key while Harvey's character becomes darker and more aggressive as he attempts further scams, and is prepared to do anything to stop his plans unravelling.Sadly all three actors went far too early - cancer in each case.Directed by Carol Reed, the film has an unusual energy. It starts out as a light caper film, but by the half way mark we realise that the game has become more dangerous. The ending has a similar touch to the one that made "The Third Man" so memorable.The film was made in 1963, and although it benefits from great locations in Spain, it actually feels a little like British films of the 40's and 50's.The score by William Allwyn has a lot to do with that. For a long while British film music had a distinctive sound with some brilliant scores. It had a different timbre to the typical Hollywood score. You could tell a film was British as soon as the main title music started, but by the late 50's, composers like John Barry and John Addison brought a fresh sound that was far more international. However the score for "The Running Man" was a throwback - it was Allwyn's last score - maybe Reed had asked for him - but it could almost be a score for a film in 1948.Although "The Running Man" does not represent the best work of those involved it is more than watchable and has a couple of twists worthy of Hitchcock.

I was really enjoying this at first. The first fifteen or twenty minutes seemed a good set-up for a premise that sounds exciting and suspenseful. Then suddenly Laurence Harvey is walking around with dyed blonde hair and a terrible Aussie accent and the film derails itself from there. Literally nothing happens for over half an hour. Just characters going to dinner with each other and talking a lot about nothing. Carol Reed was a great director who has done much better but his attempts at building suspense between the insurance agent and the couple fell flat, in my opinion. I've seen a few reviews that referred to this as a "great cat and mouse thriller." Personally I think this is very misleading as it implies this is a movie full of action and intrigue when there's very little of either.The actors are fine, for the most part. Harvey's fake Australian accent is terrible and he tends to overact more than under. Alan Bates is good for a rather dull part. Lee Remick is beautiful and does OK with the material but her character makes choices we have to make guesses as to the reasoning behind and that sort of thing always bugs me. Anyway, check it out if you come across it. Your opinion might be more favorable than mine. It's not a bad film, just not a particularly good one.

excellent thriller about man and wife who plan a scam to swindle the insurance company for a large amount of money after being turned down after a legitimate claim was turn down earlier and the deception begins and they go on the run in Spain where life's fine until the insurance man turns up in the same places, thats where the fun and tension begins.there's great camera work & direction by carol reed and a edgy script by john Mortimer,lots of colour and location works very well as does the three actors,Harvey is at his reptilian and charming best with Remick quite stunning as the not so wife and bates as the dogged insurance man.a delightful diverting film for a Sunday afternoon.