He Ran All the Way (1951) User Reviews

John Garfield Runs All the Way

[evanston_dad · 7/10 · 2 January 2007]

This strange entry in the noir canon features John Garfield delivering a sweaty, paranoid performance as a small-time crook who shoots a cop during a heist gone bad and then holes up with the family of a girl he meets and desperately latches himself on to (Shelley Winters). He virtually takes the family hostage, threatening to kill whichever member he has with him at the time if any of the other members try to seek help. Meanwhile, a game of patriarchal dominance begins between Garfield and the father, whose sense of masculinity is threatened by his inability to help his family. It all leads to a showdown in the street as Garfield attempts to run away with Winters, who may or may not have genuine feelings for him.

"He Ran All the Way" is more about the dynamics of family than anything else. In the first scene, we see what kind of home life Garfield's character comes from. His blowsy mom (played divinely by Gladys George, who has far too little screen time) verbally and physically abuses him, and then refuses to come to his aid later on when he's in trouble. As a result, Garfield tries to make a sort of surrogate family of the one he's taken hostage, attempting to establish a twisted kind of domestic tranquility, with himself as father figure. The most unsettling scene transpires at a family dinner, when Garfield forces the family at gunpoint to eat the meal he's prepared for them.

Throughout the film, Garfield acts with a desperate intensity you can practically smell. Unlike all of those cooler than cool crooks who populate the worlds of other noir films, Garfield is lousy as a criminal; his own paranoia and panic give him away at moments when he otherwise wouldn't be in any danger. Shelley Winters plays his love interest as a dowdy mope, the second time that year (see "A Place in the Sun") she played a frump who meets a good-looking lad and then regrets it. Wallace Ford and Selena Royle do the honors as mom and dad.

"He Ran All the Way" is not one of the more ambitious entries in the noir cycle, but like so many of the lurid, low-budget films that came out around this fertile period in cinema history, it has fascinating undertones that belie its simple plot.

With crisp photography by James Wong Howe and a propulsive, sensational score by that old pro Franz Waxman.

Grade: A-

Thrilling film dealing with a thief who kidnaps a family while is besieged by policemen and attempts to escape

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 12 March 2014]

The picture starts with Nick (this is last movie of John Garfield ) and his colleague Al Molin (Norman Lloyd) stage a payroll holdup . Al is murdered, along with a police officer . Nick hides out in a plunge , and into a locker hides the robbed cash ; later on , he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters) . They go out from a public pool and return to her apartment and then Nick forces her family , father (Wallace Ford , John Ford's brother) , mother (Selena Royle) and child to hide him from the police chase .

This enjoyable film contains a relentless manhunt , thrills , suspense , violence and some elements of Noir cinema . Most actors , screenwriters , director were pursued by American government during ominous period of Mccarthismo. Interesting writing credits , written under pseudonyms , by Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler , front Guy Endore ; being based on a novel by Sam Ross . Very good acting by John Garfield as a violent and desperado delinquent . Garfield had a sad as well fruitful life , as he signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Won enormous praise for his role of the cynical Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (1938). Appeared in similar roles throughout his career despite his efforts to play varied parts , being his best film : Body and soul . Active in liberal political and social causes, he found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife, he succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend at 39. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino.

Atmosheric and appropriate cinematography in black and white by James Wong Howe who along with John Alton and Nicolas Musuraka are the main cameramen of Noir genre . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by the classic Franz Waxman . The motion picture was well directed by John Berry . Director John Berry and co-scripter Hugo Butler's names were removed from the credits for a time after release, due to the blacklisting of supposed Communist sympathizers at the time. Assistant director Emmett Emerson is thus often credited as the film's director . Berry Was named as a member of the Communist Party by Hollywood 10 member Edward Dmytryk in Dmytryk's 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, when the blacklisted director "named names" to revive his Hollywood career and effect a return from exile in Europe. After Dymytrk's testimony, the formerly disgraced director, who had served a prison term for defying HUAC in 1947, was allowed to resume his Hollywood career and direct movies in America, but Berry was blacklisted and went into exile in France. Ironically, Berry had directed the documentary The Hollywood Ten . Berry directed interesting films , such as 1955 Headlines of Destruction , 1949 Tension 1949 , 1948 Casbah ,1946 Cross My Heart and 1946 From This Day Forward , among others .

A bad dream leads to a nightmare for a family.

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 25 January 2006]

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.

The Last Movie of John Garfield

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 3 January 2010]

The uptight and dumb smalltime thief Nick Robey (John Garfield) and his partner and only friend Al Molin (Norman Lloyd) robber US$ 10,000.00 from a man, but the heist goes wrong. Al Molin is killed by a policeman and Nick shots him deadly in the spine. He hides out in a public swimming pool and meets the shy spinster Peggy Dobbs (Shelley Winters) in the water. Nick uses Peggy to lie low and leave the plunge. He offers a ride in a taxi to her and she invites him to enter in her apartment, where she introduces her family to him. When Nick discovers that he killed the cop, he decides to use Peggy's apartment as hideout to wait the police manhunt cool down, forcing the family to lodge him. When Nick finds that Peggy loves him, he invites her to leave the town with him and asks her to buy a used runaway car. However, the paranoid Nick cannot trust anybody and believes Peggy has betrayed him.

The film-noir "He Ran All the Way" is the last movie of John Garfield in the role of a man that does not know the meaning of love or family, therefore he cannot believe in a woman in love with him. The storyline is very simple and claustrophobic and four years later, William Wyler made "The Desperate Hours" that has a similar storyline, with a gang that breaks in suburban house and threatens the household. This movie has not been released on Blu-ray, DVD or VHS in Brazil and is only available in cable television. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Por Amor Também Se Mata" ("For Love, It Also Kills")

Just walk slow and stick with the crowd

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 3 December 2005]

(There are Spoilers) Petty L.A hold-up man Rick Robey, John Garfield, just knew that this wasn't going to be his day. Waking up at his mother's apartment in a cold sweat Rick had a dream, or premonition, of things to come and it wasn't good. Nervously meeting his friend and fellow hood out on the street Al Nolin, Norman Llyod, Rick want's to call off the planned hold-up of the Union Pacific payroll but Al insists that this is the one job that they'll finally hit the jackpot and retire from their life of crime. Rick, a bit hesitatingly, goes alone with Al's plan; Nick should have followed his first instincts and stayed home.

By the time the day was over Nick was on the run, like in his dream, for his life from the police wanted for a payroll robbery that resulted in the payroll courier, A. Cameron Grant, being in the hospital with a cracked skull. Nick's friend and fellow robber Al Nolin ends up clinging on to life on a thread with a bullet in his stomach and the police officer whom he shot Newcomb, Dale Van Sickel, in the morgue with a bullet in his chest from Rick's gun.

Hiding out at a local L.A public swimming pool Rick with the $10,000.00 in payroll money strikes up a conversation with Peg Dobbs, Shelly Winters, whom he teaches how to swim. Nick later uses his new found girlfriend and her family's apartment to stay undercover and on the lamb from the police dragnet out to find and possibly shoot and kill the fugitive cop-killer.

In his last movie John Garfield gives one of his most riveting and at the same time sensitive performances as the anti-hero Nick Robey. It was after Garfield made "He Ran All the Way" his career came to a screeching halt due to the pressure put on him by the HUAC to name names,of fellow friends and members,which he refused. Even though he openly admitted that he was a member of a number of Communist front organizations. Garfield's troubles with the HUAC cause the stress that lead to his death on May 21, 1952 at the age of 39.

Back to the movie Nick seemed to know instinctively that he was doomed, like his dream revealed to him, even though he tried to make his escape with the help of a reluctant but love sick Peg Dobbs. Who went against both her fathers and mothers, Wallace Ford & Selena Royle, wishes who wanted no part of him. There was an eerie sense of fatality in Nick's face that showed throughout the entire film. Just look at at the scene where Peg is having a talk with her father about not going off with Nick and he's some ten feet away with his head right between the two. The look on Nick's face tells you that he knows that Mr. Dobbs is right; He's a born loser in life and a dead one at that.

Powerful ending sequence as Nick feeling left alone and abandoned by Peg, due to his death wish-like paranoia, staggers and finally falls dead on the rain soaked street from a bullet from Mr. Dobbs' gun. Right in front of a tearful Peg and the car that she got for him to make his getaway.

Tense, Claustrophobic & Visually Strong

[seymourblack-1 · 7/10 · 27 July 2012]

"He Ran All The Way" was John Garfield's last movie before his untimely death from a heart attack at the age of 39. This talented actor featured in a number of film noirs, most notably "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) and "Body And Soul" (1947) and regularly impressed with the levels of intensity and authenticity that he brought to his roles.

Interestingly, this movie is now widely regarded as being the first of the "home invasion" dramas which would later include such notable offerings as "The Desperate Hours" (1955) and "Unlawful Entry" (1992). In these movies the victims are terrorised in their own homes by very dangerous men whereas in other examples such as "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" (1992) and "The Page Turner" (2006), the threat posed to the victims is initially far more subtle and comes from very calculating women.

"He Ran All The Way" is the story of Nick Robey (John Garfield), a jobless man from a dysfunctional family background who has a nightmare about being constantly on the run and shooting someone. His nightmare soon becomes a reality after his friend Al Molin (Norman Lloyd) persuades him to take part in a payroll robbery which goes wrong. As the two men are making their escape, Al is shot and Nick has to shoot a cop in order to make a clean getaway.

Nick tries to look inconspicuous by mingling with the crowds on the street and then goes into a public swimming pool where he accidentally bumps into Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters), a young woman who's learning to swim. Following their awkward introduction to each other, Nick takes Peg home and she introduces him to her father, mother and younger brother who are going out to see a movie. When the family return home, Nick becomes very anxious and convinces himself that they must know who he is. He brandishes a gun and tells them that he's a fugitive who's wanted for shooting a policeman.

From this point on, Nick keeps at least one member of the family with him at all times so that the others can carry on their regular working routines to avoid raising any suspicions. This tense situation continues until action that Peg's father takes enables her to turn the tables on Nick.

John Garfield gives a powerful performance as the paranoid killer who doesn't trust anyone and is prone to panicking. His inability to relate to other people is profound and the combination of this quality and Peg's awkwardness and naivety makes their attempts to relate to each other painfully difficult. Shelley Winters' open-faced expressions and confused looks work well to make her character's gullibility seem utterly convincing and Wallace Ford provides the standout supporting performance as Peg's father.

Visually, this claustrophobic drama's atmosphere is emphasised very effectively by cinematographer James Wong Howe's use of high camera angles and heavily shadowed areas and the movie's poignant conclusion looks stunning and provides further evidence of his considerable skill.

A look at the names of the people involved in the making of this film highlights the impact which the work of the "House Un-American Activities Committee" had on the industry in the early 1950s. John Garfield was one of the most famous actors to be blacklisted as a result of refusing to "name names", director John Berry went to live in Paris for many years to avoid having to appear before the Committee and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo served a prison sentence for refusing to testify. Furthermore, the finger of suspicion was also pointed at another screenwriter, Hugo Butler and cinematographer James Wong Howe.

A small picture packs a big wallop

[arturus · 9/10 · 23 January 2006]

Shot on what was clearly a small budget, this "noir" style thriller is a little "loose limbed" in the writing department, but good direction, good location cinematography, Waxman's superb score (you know this is an above average film score from the first notes) and some of the best screen acting on film pull it off in style.

The director manages to mesh the differing acting styles (Garfield and Winter's more internal, "method" influenced style, Royle's more technical approach and Ford's purely instinctive playing) and creates a real ensemble. One can read the actors' minds just from a telling turn of the eye, curl of the lip. Wonderful. Everyone impresses, but Winters is most sensational, showing us the character's mixed-up feelings about the magnetic, sexy character Garfield plays right from the first accidental encounter.

Taut crime drama and Garfield's last film

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 25 February 2021]

John Garfield stars as low-life crook Nick Robey. He takes part in an armed robbery that leaves a cop dead. Nick befriends Peg Dobbs( Shelley Winters) who thinking this may be the love interest she has been waiting for, invites him to her family's apartment. Peg, along with her father (Wallace Ford), mother (Selena Royle) and little brother (Bobby Hyatt), become terrified hostages, never knowing if or when Nick may blow-up and kill them all.

This small-scale, modestly-budgeted independent production does a tremendous job of evoking the nervous, sweaty environment of its characters. Garfield is terrific as usual, playing a very unsympathetic character with surprising honesty and no glamor. Winters and Ford are also very effective. This film marks the last movie of John Garfield, an amazingly gifted actor, who never had a breakthrough film. While his body of work is substantial, the elusive blockbuster remains just that. Good performances all around, but the screenplay and the setting make for a claustrophobic experience.

Just an aside, but Ford's character's name is Fred Dobbs, Bogie's character in Treasure of the Sierra Madre made three years before. I found that very distracting.

Garfield goes out in style

[banse · 9/10 · 14 April 2001]

"He Ran All The Way" is John Garfield's final film and he doesn't disappoint his fans. He is dynamic as a cop killer who is on-the-lam and hiding out in the apartment of a middle class family. The film is a taut thriller with many tense moments and Garfield pulls no punches while he devises an escape plan. The captive family is well played by Shelley Winters who falls for the thug, Wallace Ford and Selena Royle her parents and Bobby Hyatt the little brother. There is also a gem of a cameo performance from Gladys George as Garfield's mother and also by Norman Lloyd as his partner in crime. Alas Garfield displays all his bad boy mannerisms and gut wrenching force that we came to expect from him...and what also made him a star.

At Least There's Garfield

[dougdoepke · 15 April 2008]

The opening chase through the streets and rail yards of LA is dynamically filmed as Garfield flees after killing a cop in a holdup. The pool scene, where he hides out, may not make much sense (why risk the money being stolen from the locker), but is an unusual and eye-catching venue. However, once the movie sets up shop in the Winters family apartment, the dynamism subsides and I'm reminded of one of those Playhouse 90 melodramas of the time. They were interesting stage plays for TV, but too static for a screenplay. And despite director Berry's efforts to build tension from the resulting hostage situation, the film never regains the earlier momentum.

What the movie does have is the great John Garfield in unfortunately his last role. Frankly he doesn't look well, but still manages a dynamic performance, without which the film would totally collapse. Snarling one moment and cooing the next, he's still believable as a cynical gunman torn between softer fellow feelings and a desperate sense of survival. The suspense comes from not knowing which side will ultimately dominate. Unfortunately, Shelley Winters plays the hapless girl he picks up at the pool. She's supposed to be emotionally vulnerable, which she is at first, but Winters has a hard time being vulnerable without being pathetic ( for example, "A Place in the Sun", 1951). Thus she soon becomes more annoying than sympathetic. The climax is nicely ironical, yet fails to help move the proceedings beyond the programmer stage. Too bad that Garfield didn't clock out on the wings of a more memorable movie.

HE RAN ALL THE WAY (John Berry, 1951) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 19 February 2011]

This is John Garfield's last film, made by the star's own company, which means he bowed out with a dignified vehicle which finds him in his most congenial element. Unfortunately, he would die of a heart attack on the eve of his HUAC hearing the next year at the young age of 39; ironically, the premise of a hounded petty criminal (hiding out in an apartment block) actually seems to be a tragically prescient parable for his current personal plight! Anyway, here the star is ably supported by the likes of Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford and Norman Lloyd.

Though essentially routine (not to mention overly familiar), the film is undeniably well-made, reasonably slick for an independent production – though, of course, not quite in the same league as the star's earlier BODY AND SOUL (1947) and FORCE OF EVIL (1949) – and, at a mere 77 minutes, thankfully it does not overstay its welcome. Suspense is nicely sustained throughout (from the opening payroll robbery which snowballs into murder, to a scene where an argument escalates into hysteria and results in a hand injury to the heroine's mother, and the effective – if contrived – downbeat ending). A memorably hard-boiled moment constitutes perhaps the most hilarious order ever given at gunpoint – Garfield to Ford: "Carve the turkey!"

Among the notable credits are scriptwriters Hugo Butler and Dalton Trumbo (both boasting associations to my favorite auteur Luis Bunuel!), cinematographer James Wong Howe (making the most of the enclosed setting), production designer Harry Horner (ditto), editor Francis D. Lyon and dialogue director Arnold Laven – interestingly, the last 3 all eventually graduated to the director's chair (while both Trumbo and Howe would try their hand at it just once). Also worth mentioning is the fact that, apart from Garfield, director Berry and the afore-mentioned scriptwriters (with Guy Endore 'fronting' for Trumbo) were similarly targeted by the so-called "Red Scare".

John Garfield's Last Shot

[wes-connors · 8/10 · 12 April 2008]

After a heist goes wrong, cop killer John Garfield (as Nick Robey) is on the run. Taking cover in a public swimming pool, Mr. Garfield meets plain Shelley Winters (as Peg Dobbs). Flattery gets him everywhere; and, Garfield uses Ms. Winters for getaway cover. Starved for the manly affection, Winters mistakes his advances for interest. Soon, Winters has Garfield in her apartment, to meet the family. When he feels the police closing in, Garfield holds up in Winters' apartment, holding the family hostage. Desperate hours ensue…

It's difficult to understand Winters' continued naivety; and, the "family held hostage" plot doesn't ring quite true. Still, Garfield's paranoia, and Winters' character development make it well worth watching. Sadly, this was Garfield's final film; he died within a year, at age 39. Director John Berry and photographer James Wong Howe make it look great. "He Ran All the Way" boasts a fine supporting cast, led by Wallace Ford. And, the ending grows with an exciting, thought-provoking intensity.

******** He Ran All the Way (6/19/51) John Berry ~ John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle

John Garfield's dark finale.

[st-shot · 7/10 · 13 June 2021]

John Garfield as an actor was known for his aggressively intense style and in his final film before passing away at 39 it remains every bit as fierce in He Ran All the Way. The surviving member of a botched robbery, (the accomplice hanging on long enough to rat him out) and the killing of a policeman he is mostly an unsympathetic character, giving Garfield the opportunity to stretch in his dark moments which he does does most convincingly when he takes a family hostage. Shelly Winters begins slow but is soon matching Garfield scene for scene while a small but impressive supporting cast of Selena Royal, Gladys George, Wallace Ford and Norman Lloyd all work on the conflicted Garfield character are on the mark.

James Wong Howes photography is first rate with its deep focus crispness creating an intimate stage effect inside the home, his close-ups masterful portraits. John Berry's direction is well paced and uncompromising but improbable in moments. His career along with Royal, writers Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler were all derailed due to communist sympathies in the 50s. It may have well contributed to the stress that killed Garfield, also under scrutiny. His acting on the other hand, never looked healthier, his talent sharper.

Really awful in spite of some very good actors

[jeffhaller125 · 3/10 · 31 August 2015]

Good actors like Wallace Ford. Selena Royle and Shelley Winters cannot save a script that plays as if they made it up as they went along. The main character is psychotic and has not a drop of sympathy. He isn't evil simply because Gladys George was a bad mother. Winters' character is pathetic: a mousy girl still living with her overprotective parents and kid brother. She comes off as semi mentally retarded. There really isn't any understanding of Garfield's behavior since the script gives us only tiny pieces about his past. The movie looks great. Wonderful photography and a very gritty atmosphere, but the 77 minutes eventually feels a lot longer. It's a shame that Garfield's swan song was probably his worst picture.

He Ran Walked And Swam Part Of The Way

[cutterccbaxter · 5 December 2005]

During a payroll robbery Garfield guns down on a cop and is then on the run without much of a plan. He goes to a public swimming pool where he encounters Shelley Winters practicing for her swimming part in The Poseidon Adventure. He goes to Shelley's family apartment, and his emotional state becomes increasingly agitated as he hangs out with Shelley. Eventually Garfield holds Shelley's entire family hostage and forces them to eat turkey instead of stew. During the course of the film we learn that Garfield's instability is probably due to his mother played by Gladys George. In the very first scene it is evident that George wouldn't win any mother of the year awards. In one scene when the cops are talking to her she is drinking a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. I wish she had more scenes because she plays her character with a lot of conviction.

"You're gonna have to stop this little girl stuff and start mixing with people that are hep."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 26 August 2014]

Small-time hood (John Garfield), on the run after shooting a cop during a robbery, meets an unsuspecting girl (Shelley Winters) who invites him back to her apartment. There he takes her and her family hostage while he figures out his next move.

John Garfield's last film features another fine performance from him. This probably wasn't a very challenging role for Garfield. It's similar to the types of roles he played early in his career. Perhaps a little edgier and lacking charm or humor. This character's a paranoid wreck. The rest of the cast is good, with Wallace Ford a standout as Winters' father. It's a decent thriller with a fairly routine plot, elevated by the James Wong Howe photography and an exciting score by Franz Waxman.

Star's SWAN SONG

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 11 August 2006]

Always enjoyed the great acting of John Garfield,(Nick Robey) and for some reason, I did not see this picture until just recently on TCM. The film is hard to locate nowadays and was great to see the very last picture that John Garfield ever made. As usual, Nick Robey is a down on his luck guy in this picture and even his own mother hates his guts and gives him a very hard slap in the face. Nick gets involved with a robbery and decides at the same time to go for a swim in the local indoor swimming pool and meets up with Shelly Winters,(Peggy Dobbs). These two get pretty close to each other and Peggy sort of invites Nick into her parents apartment and it is from that point in the film when everything starts to get interesting. John Garfield's career was beginning to slow down for him in Hollywood and he did have heart problems and was found dead making love, which was probably exactly the way Garfield would have want it to happen in real life. Great Classic film with a very sad ending.

not much more than average

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 2 August 2005]

It's a real shame that John Garfield's career had to end with a film like this. It's NOT a bad film, in fact there are many other than myself that think it's an excellent film. It's just that it does nothing to show the true range of Garfield as an actor as the character he plays is nearly identical to the ones he played in the early part of his career with Warner Brothers (when he played gangster roles which were almost equally suited to Cagney, Raft or Bogart). This is yet another hoodlum flick. Garfield is hurt while pulling a heist and hides out in an apartment by taking a family hostage. The plot is very similar to The Desperate Hours, though The Desperate Hours pulled this off much better--thanks to better writing and better supporting actors.

So I am not saying you should not watch the film, just that there are better films by John Garfield.

A taut little noir thriller

[LCShackley · 8/10 · 19 November 2007]

John Garfield's character in this movie makes his character in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE look like Mr. Easy Going. He's tight as a drum from the opening scene with his nasty mother, through the holdup (with snaky Norman Lloyd as his partner), his flight, and the long scenes with Shelley Winters' family.

Winters is appealing in her role as the plain girl who can't find a man. She falls for the dangerous and casually violent Garfield; but is she really in love with him or trying to assist in his capture? That's where the tension lies in this short thriller. Dalton Trumbo (uncredited as screenwriter) creates good dialog for all the cast members, and pulls together an exciting final 5 minutes with a few plot twists and a gut-wrenching ironic final shot. Catch it if you can, if you're a noir fan.

A decent melodrama and great performances by Garfield & Winters

[Ed-Shullivan · 6/10 · 11 February 2018]

John Garfield plays a troubled and confused robber named Nick Robey whose problems are further exasperated as he is unemployed and lives at home with his mother who is not very loving or understanding. So Nick is trying to figure out what to do with his life when he is literally pushed out of his bed and onto the street by his pestering mother and he is greeted by a waiting shark named Al Molin (played by Norman Lloyd best known for his TV role as Dr. Daniel Auschlander in the 1982-88 hospital drama St. Elsewhere) who has talked Nick into a surefire plan of robbing a manufacturing plant of their weekly payroll.

The robbery does not go as it was planned but Nick does escape with a briefcase full of $10K cash but he needs a place to hide after shooting a cop while getting away from the robbery. Nick decides to hang out on the beachfront in an indoor public pool where he accidentally collides into a novice and naive young female named Peggy Dobbs played brilliantly by Shelly Winters.

As Nick's head is swirling with where to hide and when to make his getaway his paranoia comes to a head and he convinces the naive Peggy Dobbs to allow him just to walk her home. Poor naive Peg agrees to have Nick walk her home and she invites him into her upstairs apartment which Peg shares with her parents and younger brother Tommy. John Garfield lives an isolated existence both physically and more importantly emotionally. When the pressure of the police potentially closing in on him becomes far too much for him to bear Nick misled by his delusional paranoia he makes a decision that he will keep the four (4) Dobbs family members hostage in their upstairs apartment until the heat dies down and he can figure out how and when to make his getaway.

John Garfield plays the paranoid plant robber on the run with great emotion and fear. His screen performance portrays a young man who just seems lost and wanting for someone, anyone, to show him some semblance of love and understanding. So Nick reaches out to his mother but even she turns him down. The only one left that Nick believes he can even remotely rely on anymore is this young naive girl Peg who he is holding as a hostage with the rest of her family. Emotions are running at a fervor pace throughout the scared Dobbs family and over the next 48 hours young Peg continues to have empathy for Nick as she realizes he is lost and has no one in his life. The climax of this film is well done and reflects the troubled times of the 1940's and 1950's when film noir and guns went hand in hand with emotion and struggling families.

I give the 1951 black and white John Garfield film "He Ran All the Way" a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

Vintage Garfield

[abooboo-2 · 8/10 · 10 May 2001]

Worth seeing if for no other reason than Garfield's frantic, breathless performance. The storytelling is unsure at times, but his acting sure isn't. The guy performs as if he's looking straight down the barrel of a loaded shotgun. He really lets it fly over the film's very powerful last ten minutes. Also, Shelly Winters is much more effective here, in a role she virtually perfected (as the lonely, whimpering victim) than she was in the classic "A PLACE IN THE SUN", which also came out that year.

Running In The Family

[Lejink · 7/10 · 22 July 2020]

I'm a big fan of John Garfield's acting, his stock-in-trade was playing vulnerable tough guys who rarely got the breaks and often ended up dead or broken by the end of the film. This low-budget noir is notable for being the last film he completed before his early death, hastened possibly by a weak heart condition, marital problems and in particular the harassment he received at the hands of the omnipresent House of Un-American Activities Committee whose accusations of Communist sympathising saw film work dry up as the major studios shied away from employing him.

That said, it's noteworthy that other more active participants in left-wing politics of the time and indeed who had espoused Communism in the past were also very much involved in this film, from actors Norman Lloyd and Selena Royle, director John Berry and uncredited scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo, among others.

The plot here is a simple one, Garfield is the muscle to Lloyd's brains in their planned operation to rob a security van of its payroll. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't end well, Lloyd is wounded and taken into police custody while Garfield grabs the cash and tries to disappear into the New York background. So he ends up at the public swimming pool, as you would, where he's attracted to a young blonde female, Shelley Winters, whose most famous film role years later coincidentally also involved her trying to swim, but in a wholly different situation in "The Poseidon Adventure". She seems to click with the much older Garfield even when his temper occasionally flares up, so she innocently lets him take her back home, inadvertently giving him the opportunity to forcibly hole up with her old mum, dad and kid brother until he decides his exit strategy, which may or any not involve taking Winters along with him. It all ends up in a face-off between Garfield and the girl's protective father who finally finds his backbone, setting up the inevitable downbeat conclusion typical of this genre.

Only 75 minutes long, this hostage drama is effectively played by all the main participants. Realistically filmed and acted, the characters' motivations and reactions ring true, eschewing sentimentality or cliche even down to the young kid brother who initially seems to look up to the gun-toting Garfield but who soon sees through his big-shot posturing.

Garfield, despite seeming too old to be playing the young punk part, gives his typical full-on performance, Winters is very good as the conflicted young girl as are Wallace Ford and Selena Royce as her trusting parents flung into a terrifying situation. Director Berry, assisted by the redoubtable James Wong Howe behind the cameras, convincingly captures the claustrophobic paranoia which only grows as the film progresses and there's even a Franz Waxman soundtrack to add further drama to proceedings.

Garfield would be dead within a year, not yet 40 and while this film isn't his best remembered, it still stands as a good example of his considerable, mercurial talent and the film itself is a noir well worth tracking down for a viewing.

Just the right suspense...

[MarieGabrielle · 9/10 · 7 June 2007]

twists and turns, and unusual developments. The perfect suspense and noir film not only for John Garfield fans.

Garfield is a man down on his luck who with partner in crime Norman Lloyd decides the perfect heist is to rob a payroll clerk on payday. They steal the money and to escape he blends in to the crowd. He ends up at a sort of YMCA/neighborhood pool which is very crowded; the police are looking for him but he hides the money in his locker. There is much suspense created here under rather ordinary circumstances. Some of the scenes in the pool are interesting, as when he is swimming, hiding underwater to avoid the police. He flirts and eventually befriends a stand-offish Shelley Winters. She has that likable and vulnerable quality that a thief could use, to hide-out. He takes her home, which turns out to be a small apartment where she lives with her parents and kid brother. The parents portray the average working class, decent people who would not expect a man to be capable of such crimes.

Eventually Winters falls for him. She has her hair done and even buys a new dress to impress the Garfield character. He needs to make a get-away and gives her $1,500.00 of the money to get a car. When she returns the jig is up. The police have been notified and it is just a matter of time. Garfield doubts that Winters even bought the car... she must have turned him in, he thinks. Possibly not? The ending has a good twist of fate and movies such as this are hard to come by. Highly recommended.

There was something very real, and affecting about these movies centered in NYC. Nothing since has ever come close. If you enjoyed this you may also like "Pickup on South Street" with Richard Widmark and Thelma Ritter. Also "Road House" with Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark. Another stand-out. 9/10.

Gorgeously filmed with some great parts, but a story that strains

[secondtake · 7/10 · 21 June 2017]

He Ran All the Way (1951)

This is a terrific film, and film noir, at its best. The first half hour is filled with ordinary scenes in post-war New York: a pool, a warehouse, and the streets, at day and night. Quite compelling stuff. John Garfield is sympathetic, if a bit over his head in this role, and Shelly Winters is superb as the girl trapped by a killer and by her sudden affection for a man that seems to have no outlet.

But the film is not always at its best. The main portion is contained and static, even if there is an attempt at psychological intensity, for sure. I can't give too much away here, but want to provide a sense of the overall excitement at first that leads to a more interior film, where it flounders a bit.

There a plot elements that you have to go along with, and Garfield might be partly trapped by the script, having to play an deeply conflicted and impulsive type in ways that might not make sense. So just keep going, and realize that eventually the main point is to get the protective nature of parents for their innocent child, and get the child's yearning for a real reason to love someone.

And to get Garfield's dimwittedness and accept it. Maybe some people really are that foolish. The final scene with Garfield slowly realizing what matters most of all might be true is moving if you buy into all that led to it.

The strongest element of all here is the photography by James Wong Howe. There are closeups and astonishing harsh lighting and a foreground/background sensibility that take noir to its heights. See it for that if nothing else.

Pedestrian.

[rmax304823 · 4/10 · 12 April 2008]

Pretty decent cast -- John Garfield, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle -- but the film is no more than routine. Garfield is a gangster who has just committed a payroll robbery. On the run, he takes refuge in the working-class apartment of a girl he just met, Shelley Winters, and her family -- Mom, Pop, and kid brother. His identity is discovered by the family and he quietly takes them hostage, holding a snub-nosed .38 on them. But what's he going to do with them? How is he supposed to get away with the dragnet out for him? Mom and Pop are quietly repulsed by him, but Winters is attracted and evidently spends the night with him, intending to accompany him on his getaway. He sends her out to buy a car with part of the payroll money but comes to believe she didn't buy the car. Instead, she's betrayed him to the police. In the end, she's forced to shoot him at the doorway to the apartment house. He looks surprised, says, "You never had no love for me," stumbles out the door, only to discover before he collapses that she'd been true to her word. There sits the car. And Garfield plops into the rain-filled gutter.

Mostly -- throughout the movie -- they talk. Then they talk more. Then they go on talking more. Garfield's character emerges as embittered and cynical, self pitying, angry at those who have betrayed him all through his life, beginning with his mother.

But he's not very smart. He allows the family to go out in order to show up at work or run errands, as long as he has one member at home for a hostage. While the rest are absent, in a burst of generosity and hope, he has an elaborate turkey dinner prepared. When they return, he beams with pride and tells them to dig in. But they remain silent, and Mom produces some left-over stew, which they proceed to spoon out without enthusiasm. "I don't get it," says Garfield. "What's the mattah with the toikey? Ga head -- cahve it up." Pop tells him solemnly, "This is our dinner. The turkey is YOUR dinner." Garfield is dumbfounded. "Huh? Oh -- I GET IT." (Finally.) It could easily have been a radio play, still popular at the time (1951) or a live TV show from Playhouse 90. The budget is low and the story skeletal. Usually they find room for remarks about how this is going to be the hottest day of the year or something. Here the patter is limited to remarks about the future, about good character, about responsibility, and they lead nowhere.

I usually find John Garfield's performances likable -- another lower-middle-class guy from New York -- but never magnetic. Shelley Winters usually gets panned but I don't know why. She's never bad, and often better than the script calls for.