The Running Man (1963) Reviews

• Much better than you've heard: The Running Man

  mackjay22007-09-21

  Sorely underrated and dismissed at the time of its release, THE RUNNING MAN can now be seen for what it it: a highly effective thriller. Director Carol Reed was said to be shaken after being dismissed from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, but it really doesn't show. He conducts us deftly through a nicely conceived intrigue, with no time wasted. If a viewer can forgive a small handful of plot contrivances, this movie delivers in suspense, interesting characters, acting, and pleasing use of locations. The cast is superb: Laurence Harvey might look underfed, but his character is richly drawn he seems to have a great time. Lee Remick has never been better: a woman who sees her husband for what he really is when he assumes a new identity. And Alan Bates, an actor who radiated charm, brings a lot of substance to his part. Watch for Fernando Rey and Fortunio Bonanova (the singing teacher from CITIZEN KANE--"Impossible! Impossible!") as a bank manager. The script has a good helping of humor along with the suspense. And William Alwyn's music score enhances the film as well. It may not be THE THIRD MAN, but THE RUNNING MAN is likely to satisfy most fans of thrillers, the director and the estimable cast.

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• Excellent thriller with good twist

  Dawnfrancis2003-04-09

  A bitter airline pilot fakes his own death and gets his wife to collect the money. They escape to sunny Europe after committing a perfect crime. But, of course, there's always the dogged investigator to make things difficult. This movie is a good afternoon's diversion. It's bright, flashy and pacey. With John Mortimer writing and Carol Reed directing, it has a certain touch of class. It's not an A list movie by any means, but a quick look in any reference book will tell you that it's well respected. Good performances, bright locations and a decent pace make this well worth a look.

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• Romancing the Stone-type exotic location adventure but with a darker plot

  rstabosz-12006-10-01

  This movie had the misfortune of being released just around the time of JFK's assassination, where it got swallowed up in the general grief of the time. It did not do well at the box office, and one of its publicity stunts backfired when Dallas police saw personal ads in the newspaper signed by "Lee" and asking to meet up at an appointed place. The police thought it might be a Lee Harvey Oswald connection, not a Lee Remick stunt -- and spent some time chasing down this blind alley. I caught the film while flipping channels in the middle of the night and quite enjoyed it. Laurence Harvey plays an airline pilot/owner who loses out when a two-days' late insurance premium lets his insurance company deny his legitimate claim after he crashes his plane in the sea, narrowly escaping with his life. An honest guy with a love of risk-taking and a mutually reciprocated passion for his beautiful wife, Lee Remick, he decides to get back at the insurance company by faking his own death, with his wife's reluctant collusion. She hopes that this will get his anger out of his system and give them enough money to live comfortably, which seems to be why she goes along with the scheme. But at heart she just wants a quiet, comfortable life, an "ordinary life", she tells him. He, however, takes to life at the edges quite wonderfully, and pretty soon he's all about living the high life and risking their freedom with additional swindling schemes. Alan Bates plays the insurance investigator who comes round to the wife asking questions after her husband's "death". He has a whole Columbo thing going on, asking questions in an affable, bumbling way that always seems to indicate he knows more than he is letting on. He turns up again in Malaga, Spain, where the couple has gone with the insurance money to start their new life. Again, he's got the questions that could be innocent or could be a dogged inspector following his prey. Harvey decides that the best way to keep an eye on Bates is to invite him along to enjoy the Malaga sun and surf with the two of them. The three of them hang out together, swimming and eating and drinking and enjoying what Bates says is his vacation time and Harvey claims is a working vacation. Remick is supposed to be the new widow, technically single, who gravitates to the orbit of the Australian rich guy that Harvey is impersonating. At the movie's emotional core is, yes, a love triangle, as Lee Remick grows disenchanted with her husband's attraction to the James Bond lifestyle while discovering that Alan Bates likes museums and quiet walks, like she does, and seems to like her. So it's cat and mouse between the two guys on two levels -- over the insurance money and over the woman. The Malaga locations are glorious and reminded me of the villages in Romancing the Stone where Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas run across weddings, dancing, and general romantic danger. The movie doesn't take itself seriously, and the characters are conflicted in a way that you don't know what to hope for and what the final moral and romantic resolutions will be. Will the husband redeem himself? Will the wife stay true to him or fall in with the man who is on his tail? Harvey is not irredeemable and we do feel sympathy for him, and see that he is more oblivious to his wife's unhappiness than deliberately mean. He treats her as an extension of himself and just doesn't recognize that she has no interest in playing Bonnie to his Clyde. Good flick. Not great, but good.

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• No classic, but pleasantly diverting

  lexdevil2003-07-16

  For those who resent paying their insurance premiums--and who amongst us doesn't--there is Carol Reed's The Running Man, not to be confused with the Arnold Schwarzinator film of the same name. The always dapper but much too thin Laurence Harvey stars as Rex Black, a professional pilot whose insurance claim is turned down by frosty Allan Cuthbertson due to coverage that expired two days prior to an accident. Enraged, Harvey and wife (played by an icily beautiful Lee Remick) launch a scheme to bilk the insurance company of a very large sum of money. Unfortunately, claims adjustor Alan Bates is on the job to complicate matters for the felonious couple. John Mortimer's screenplay is a bit flat and frankly unbelievable at times, but the superb cast more than makes up for it. The film, shot in colour and on location in Spain, looks gorgeous, but Encore is airing a pan-and-scan print that severely compromises the original Panavision framing. At least this print retains a widescreen credits sequence, which features some superb work by Bond main man Maurice Binder.

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• insurance swindle that goes wrong,on the run in Spain

  rogerjillings2005-03-21

  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.

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