As I said yesterday, John Garfield is one of my favorite actors. He Ran All The Way is his final film. Garfield died at age 39. The featured image depicts his death at the end of the movie: It’s as if Jimmy Cagney had died after his death scene in The Roaring Twenties. I hope y’all don’t mind the spoiler. I used it because it’s such a powerful image.
The movie has something else in common with that Cagney classic, Gladys George who plays Garfield’s harridan mother:
I seem to be drawn to films made by players, directors, and writers who ran afoul of the Hollywood blacklist. He Ran All The Way is full of them: producer/star Garfield; actor Norman Lloyd; director John Berry; writers Hugo Butler and Dalton Trumbo. Credited writer Guy Endore was another of Trumbo’s fronts, so I’m sure Trumbo at least rewrote the script.
He Ran All The Way tells the story of a small time crook, Nick Robey played by Garfield. He’s recruited by Norman Lloyd who provides him with a plan and, more lethally, a gun. The robbery goes awry, leaving both Lloyd and Garfield wounded. Garfield shot a cop who pursued him. He’s now a cop killer. Nobody likes a cop killer.
Garfield’s first hide out is a public pool. The chemistry crackles when Garfield meets Shelley Winters there.
It’s the wettest meet cute I’ve ever seen.
Garfield follows Winters home, deciding to hole up there, at gunpoint. He sends mixed messages to Shelley’s parents played by veteran character actors, Wallace Ford and Selena Royle. He allows them to move around as long as the stay at home mom, stays home with him.
In a film full of great performances, Wallace Ford nearly steals the movie. He’s *that* good as Winters’ dad. He’s appalled by what’s happened to his family, which is made worse by the obvious attraction between Garfield and Winters.
There’s a pesky kid brother in the mix who nearly causes the desperate desperado to crack like this window.
He Ran All The Way is a tense, claustrophobic movie set largely in Wallace Ford’s crib. A happy ending is not possible, but the film is full of images like this by the great cinematographer, James Wong Howe:
I’ve already given away the ending but not how our star dies or at whose hands. This feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers, after all.
Grading Time: I give He Ran All The Way 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. It landed at #5 on my John Garfield Dozen. It was a fine way for a great star to conclude his brief career. It’s a pity that Garfield and Winters only made one movie together. They’re that good.
He Ran All The Way is based on a novel by San Ross:
Let’s peruse some posters.
We begin with the US and Japanese poster side-by-side:
It’s quad time:
Garfield tried to feed the family a fancy takeout turkey dinner. They refused until he waved his gat around. The scene made me hungry, so let’s all go to the lobby and see what’s on offer.
No turkey, not even stuffing or canned cranberry sauce. What can ya do?
In lieu of feasting let’s check out the lobby cards:
Note that Garfield’s jacket is yellow above and blue below. I don’t recall him changing coats.
The pesky kid brother was played by Bobby Hyatt who appeared in two of our past movie posts: High Wall and Tomorrow Is Another Day.
Now that we’ve checked into Hyatt’s past, let’s watch the trailer:
The last word goes to Eddie Muller with his Noir Alley intro and outro:
