He Ran All The Way

He Ran All the Way (1951)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Directed by: John Berry

Starring: John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle, Gladys George

From: 20^th Century Fox

A movie watched after multiple recommendations. To be specific, the first was someone else on Letterboxd (not even a follower) who commented on my review of Call Northside 777 that if I wanted to see more John Garfield, this was one of the three he recommended. Then, I caught up with the latest episode of the Pure Cinema Podcast-devoted to film noir-and the hosts spent a few minutes discussing why they liked this movie so much. I needn’t any further push to check out something that’s currently on the Criterion Channel.

Garfield plays sad-sack loser Nick who lives in the same abode as his cantankerous PBR-drinking mama. He is dragged into a robbery by a pal which of course is botched. In his escape, he hides out in a public swimming pool, where he meets Shelley Winters. Soon, he goes to her house, where she lives w/ her family, and… it becomes a home invasion. What a juxtaposition in families; that is a key theme, along with a frequently perspiring Nick always looking frazzled out of his mind, about ready to snap at any moment, and overall just doesn’t look well.

Unfortunately, it was because John Garfield was in actual poor health at the time; he had a bad heart and was under a tremendous amount of stress. Those that don’t know of the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950’s can use Wikipedia for more information but he went on the blacklist for not dropping the dime on naming names when it came to mentioning those that were members of the Communist Party or were at least sympathetic to same. It’s said that this stress likely caused his heart to give out and die at the age of 39, only a year after this movie was released. Incidentally, He Ran All the Way’s director (John Berry) and both its writers (Dalton Trumbo, Hugo Butler) were blacklisted themselves. What an awful time in American history the Hollywood Blacklist was.

As for the film itself, quibbles certainly could be made. But the performances of the main cast (especially Garfield, Winters, and Wallace Ford) are huge assets in its favor, and what a tragic story for its anti-hero lead character… not to mention the actual tragedy of its real-life star. The film was a quality recommendation, in other words.