From Our Vaults:
Carol Reed directed Running Man, a British-American neo noir, starring Laurence Harvey as a man who fakes his own death in a glider accident, then runs into trouble when a mysterious insurance investigator is after him.
It was adapted by screenwriter John Mortimer from Shelley Smith’s 1961 novel The Ballad of the Running Man.
It was shot in San Roque, Cádiz, La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz , Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain, Gibraltar and Ireland.
The film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London’s West End on August 1, 1963.
Oscar nominees Lee Remick and Alan Bates co-starred with Harvey.
The film came to the attention of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy because of a viral marketing campaign that placed personal ads in the Dallas Morning News asking the “Running Man” to please call “Lee.” Investigators thought these might be coded messages placed by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald until they discovered the source of the ads.
In Hollywood, an urban legend arose claiming that the film was flop because it starred actors named Lee and Harvey.
Stella Black (Lee Remick) attends memorial service for her husband Rex. Apparently, he died in gliding accident, but his body was never recovered. It turns out that Rex (Laurence Harvey) is still alive.
In reality, he and Stella perpetrate this ruse to collect £50,000 life insurance as revenge against the same company that had refused to pay out on previous claim.
Even the insurance company’s investigator, Stephen Maddox (Alan Bates), fails to uncover the crime, freeing the Blacks to travel to Malaga for vacation.
While there, Rex steals the passport of drunken Jim Jerome (John Meillon), a touring Australian sheep rancher, and changes it with his own photo. Rex then plans future “trick” involving another insurance company in which he will fake his death.
Meanwhile, a British male vacationer, who Stella recognizes but can’t remember, approaches her, reminds her he is Stephen Maddox, the agent who interrogated her after Rex’s “funeral.”
Rex believes Maddox’s arrival in Spain is too coincidental, and that he is looking to expose the Blacks’ insurance fraud. In time, though, Stella believes Stephen is only a sweet, lonely man who desires company.
Subsequent events bear out Stella’s guess; Stephen is looking for companionship with fellow Englanders. But later, Stephen suspects something is amiss with the couple.
Stephen speaks to Rex as if he knows what’s going on with their scam, which alarms Rex. Rex’s paranoia fuels his attempt to run Stephen’s car off the road as he and Stella make frenzied getaway drive to Gibraltar.
But before the couple is detained by Spanish police captain (Fernando Rey). Rex uses the confusion of “running-of-the-bulls” event to escape, leaving his wife behind. He reaches air strip, where he steals plane and escapes the Rock. The plane runs out of fuel, forcing Rex into the sea, with fatal results.
Symmetry
The final scene, as at the story’s beginning, shows Stella seemingly mourning the death of Rex—this time, for real, as he is taken away by boat dead.
The Ballad of the Running Man, which was published in 1961, was called by critics “horrifying, gripping, spellbinding.”
Columbia Pictures had [produced Reed’s Our Man in Havana. It was the first project Reed worked on after leaving the shoot of the troubled Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Brando.
Filming took place in Spain, and at Ardmore Studios in Ireland. The film’s sets were designed by the art director John Stoll.
The movie divided the critics. The N.Y. Times panned it, while the L.A. Times praised it as “an almost perfect picture–on-edge anxiety, unpredictable surprises, all astonishingly logical; and developing sense of characterization, so that–in contrast to the celebrated Hitchcock’s chases–the final bitterly ironic twist leaves one actually moved with pity and a feeling of loss.”
Critical Status/Awards
Robert Krasker, Carol Reed’s favorite and frequent collaborator, who had shot the 1950 masterpiece, The Third Man, was nominated for the BAFTA color cinematography award.
Cast
Laurence Harvey as Rex
Lee Remick as Stella
Alan Bates as Stephen
Felix Aylmer as Parson
Eleanor Summerfield as Hilda Tanner
Allan Cuthbertson as Jenkins
Harold Goldblatt as Tom Webster
Noel Purcell as Miles Bleeker
Ramsay Ames as Madge Penderby
Fernando Rey as Police Official
Juanjo Menéndez as Roberto (as Juan Jose Menendez)
Eddie Byrne as Sam Crewdson
Colin Gordon as Solicitor
John Meillon as Jim Jerome
Roger Delgado as Spanish Doctor
Fortunio Bonanova as Spanish Bank Manager
Shirley Gale as Florence
José Calvo as Porter (as Jose Calvo)
Joe Lynch as Roy Tanner
Freddy Roberts as Guide
Adriano Domínguez as Civil Guard (as Adriano Dominguez)
James Neyland as English Customs Official
Pamela Pant as Margaret Webster
Herbert Curiel as 1st Witness
Antonio Padilla Ruiz as 2nd Witness
Lockwood West as Bank Manager
Bob Cummingham as Thomas Guppy
Ildefonso San Félix as Customs Official (as Ildefonso San Felix)
María Granada as Dianne (as Maria Granada)
Rafael Albaicín as Waiter (as Rafael Albaicin)
Ángel Jiménez as 1st Gispy Boy (as Angel Jimenez)
Juan Jiménez as 2nd Gispy Boy (as Juan Jimenez)
