He Ran All the Way makes me sad because it is
John Garfield's last movie (and he looks waxy throughout the film). I also can only take a small dose of
Shelley Winters, (sorry). Two reasons why I might enjoy this movie:
Norman Lloyd as a hoodlum and
Wallace Ford as
Winters' father. I'm sure others are far more enthusiastic about this movie than I am.
Of the two, I'd really recommend
The Captive City (1952). It is an excellent
Robert Wise film shot in a noirish documentary style. The director, intentionally echoing the Kefauver hearings of the time, and the McCarthy era paranoia so well reflected in Wise's previous film,
The Day the Earth Stood Still, works well with with cinematographer
Lee Garmes in this movie.
Garmes was using an innovative Hoge lens to photograph the movie,and they create a stark style that helped to make this movie very striking visually and psychologically. The lens, which allowed for extremely detailed closeups and a stark black and white beauty to many scenes on the street and in the cramped offices and homes of the film's settings, was developed by
Ralph Hoge, who had worked as a key grip on
Citizen Kane and as an assistant to
Wise on this picture. This lens allowed an incredibly detailed depth of field, (going beyond even what
Gregg Toland had achieved), and allowing more setups in more actual locations and realistic settings.
Though shot on location in the larger Reno, Nevada, the filmmakers create a real feeling of small town life in this movie, its coziness, its comfortable shabbiness, as well as its claustrophobia. In terms of the acting, watch for a few brief, but powerful scenes with
Marjorie Crosland as a small town mobster's ex-wife. She is a wonderful actress, investing a small character with a lifetime of realism. I also liked
Ian Wolfe's turn as a minister. The events depicted in this movie were based on the real life experiences of Time magazine reporter
Alvin Josephy, Jr. when he returned from WWII and was working for a chain of weekly newspapers near Hollywood, where mob figures threatened his boss for investigating local bookies. (
Josephy also wrote an excellent autobiography "A Walk Toward Oregon: A Memoir" about his lifelong interest in a variety of topics, including crime, American Indian history, and his adventures as a screenwriter in Hollywood, along with other topics. )
In
Robert Wise on His Films by Sergio Leemann, the director said that "[t]he movie didn't cause any attention here [in the U.S.], but I remember getting a review from England that called it 'the sleeper of the year.' I was very proud of it, especially for its documentary-like visual texture." I thought that it must have influenced Don Siegel quite a bit when he came to make the much better known
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers too.
Here's a terrific rundown of some of the publicity attempted by Aspen Pictures which was an indie production company formed by
Wise,
Mark Robson and former RKO producer
Theron Warth in 1949. I believe it was this production company that
Val Lewton had hoped to be a part of before he became ill, (and was reportedly shut out by his creative partners). Aspen pictures was not ultimately successful.