The Running Man.

Rex Black is dead or is he? After the funeral service newly widowed Stella Black returns to their flat for the wake. Rex had been assumed dead after a glider he was piloting crashed into the sea and his body never found. When the guests have departed Rex Black miraculously reappears larger than life and potentially very much richer. We learn that the couple have plotted to swindle their insurance company by insuring Rex’s life and then staging the accident. All seems to be going to plan until an inquisitive insurance agent, Stephan Maddux, turns up to question the ‘grieving’ widow. Black has to disappear again until the claim is finalised and the money has been paid out. Leaving Stella in the UK to sort out the final particulars he leaves the country and goes to Malaga. While he is there he stumbles on the passport of an Australian sheep farmer and assumes the identity of Jim Jerome along with a rather dreadful Australian accent. When the claim is finally cleared Stella joins ‘Jim Jerome’ in Spain. But as luck would have it Stephan Maddox turns up at the same resort that Stella and “Jim” are staying at. Is the arrival of the insurance agent just coincidence or is he still on the trail of our two fraudsters?   

 

Laurence Harvey in a tourist free Spain.

Based on the Shelley Smith novel The Ballad of the Running Man, and Directed and produced by Carol Reed (Climbing High 1939) it has a screenplay written by John Mortimer who is probable best known for creating barrister Horace Rumpole who in turn is a character you will remember from the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey.  Shot in the Ardmore Studios in County Wicklow in Ireland and on location in a beautiful looking Spain before the advent of package tours. The Running Man (1963) stars Laurence Harvey (The Good Die Young 1954) as Rex Black, a role that really suited the actor, the attractive American actress Lee Rimick played Blacks wife Stella and Alan Bates appears as the insurance agent Stephan Maddux. A grand line up with all three helping to make the story more believable than it really deserved.

 

Lee Rimick with Alan Bates.

Although critics at the time of its release thought the film poorly conceived and some even went as far as saying it was muddled and indulgent, on reflection it know seems a breath of fresh air. It may seem a wee bit contrived but still gives us plenty to enjoy, in fact I found it a polished and exciting production that unfortunately is not available on DVD or Blu-ray at present. 

The Good Die Young.

I have previously mentioned British film director Lewis Gilbert when writing about Cast A Dark Shadow (1955), which you will remember, starred Dirk Bogarde and Margaret Lockwood. Gilbert’s best known films includes Alfie (1966) which was adapted from a Bill Naughton's play and starred Michael Caine as the sixties icon. Later work included Educating Rita in 1983, which again featured Caine, Shirley Valentine (1989) and three James Bond films; You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

Another of the 40 plus films he directed was the British noir crime thriller The Good Die Young (1954) jointly adapted for the screen by Gilbert and Vernon Harris based on a novel of the same name by Richard Macaulay. Filmed mainly at the Shepperton Studios with the climax filmed at Heathrow Airport. It included an American/Canadian/British cast.

 

Four men 'up to no good'.

The film opens with four men sitting in a large saloon car clearly up to no good, (the men not the car) something that’s reinforced when handguns are handed out. These four men, two British and two American, have apparently only known each other for four weeks. The spoken narrative informs us that they all have clean criminal records; it then goes on to explain how each of these very different individuals came to be sitting in the car.

Joe Halsey (Richard Basehart) a clerk has flown to Britain to find out why his wife Mary (a twenty year old Joan Collins) has not returned from a two weeks holiday in the UK where she went to look after her mother who had been ill.  Mary’s mother (Freda Jackson) is insecure and noticeably unstable and does not approve of Joe and wants nothing more than to keep her daughter in the UK and split the couple up. But Joe who finds out his pretty young wife is pregnant wants to return to New York with her as soon as he can get the plane fare together.

 

Each man needs an injection of money to solve his immediate problems!

Mike Morgan (the ever dependable Stanley Baker) an ex-navy man who realises he has come to the end of his relatively unsuccessful career as a boxer and needs just one more fight to increase his total savings to £1000 which he believes is enough money for him to retire and live happily ever after with his caring wife Angela (Rene Ray). But Angela has a younger brother who is forever on the wrong side of the law. When his sister puts up to bail money for his release he skips the country and Mike and Angela loose all their savings.  Even if he wanted too, Mike couldn’t go back in the ring because following an accident his hand was amputated, in fact Mike is finding it imposable to find any kind of employment.

Eddie Blaine (John Ireland) is an American air force Sargent who is about to be transferred from his base in the UK to one in Germany, but the fly in the ointment is his unfaithful actress wife Denise (the sultry femme fatale Gloria Grahame) who will not go with him because of her career, but Eddie suspects that its more to do with her leading man Tod Maslin (Lee Patterson). Eddie goes AWOL and needs to get away from both the UK and his unfaithful wife.

 

Problems are not always of your own making.

Miles ‘Rave’ Ravenscroft (Laurence Harvey) has a very rich father and a very rich and sophisticated wife Eve (Harvey’s wife to-be Margaret Leighton). But Rave indulges in extramarital affairs and sponges off his wife to pay his gambling debts. But Eve refuses to settle up his latest liability that is owed to a rather unscrupulous villain who will stop at nothing to get his money. Even his father will not cough up the required dosh.  Rave needs to raise some money - quickly.   

This atmospheric suspense drama boasts a very cleverly constructed story that gradually unravels as the film progresses and manages to keep a tight grip on your attention span for its 94 minute running time. In my opinion it benefits from changing the novels original location from America to 1950’s England where it’s made obvious that the four main characters are still reeling from the end of WW2.  It’s not just the main personalities involved in this drama that are extremely well cast but also the rest of the company, who fit their roles like a well tailored pair of gloves. These include Susan Shaw, Robert Morley and Leslie Dwyer.