Touches You

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Exciting and suspenseful reworking of "The Most Dangerous Game" has Richard Widmark as a reclusive Hemingway-like writer living in Mexico and Jane Greer as a magazine reporter trying to find out why he stopped writing. Two find themselves stranded in the jungle after their plane crashes. They happen upon a remote compound with some friendly European gentlemen, except that these gentlemen really aren't so friendly and SPOILER ALERT! are Nazi and Russian war criminals who then want to hunt Widmark and Greer for sport. Tone can be difficult with these human-hunting-human stories, where it can easily become ridiculous (i.e. "Hart Target"), but this film gets it right and I'll credit the smart script co-written by Dudley Nichols, who wrote everything from "Bringing Up Baby" to "Stagecoach." The story moves along at a good clip, with Widmark growing increasingly suspicious of his hosts, and has some solid action and suspense once the hunt begins. FUN FACT: According to IMDB, Richard Widmark thought this was one of his worst films and used to tell his kids that if they didn't behave themselves, they'd have to watch " Run for the Sun".

What initially looks as if it is going to be a character study of a washed-up Hemngway-type novelist wallowing in self-pity and local liquor in some tiny south American village suddenly changes tack to become a sort of remake of The Most Dangerous Game and, in truth, the first half of the plot was probably more interesting for me. Once Trevor Howard and Peter van Eyck are introduced as a Nazi sympathiser and war criminal hiding out in the jungle into which Widmark and Jane Greer crash land, the film pretty much forgets any ideas of delving into how Latimer can overcome the writer's block that is driving him towards self destruction and concentrates instead on a straightforward cat-and-mouse chase formula. That's not to say the second half of the film isn't enjoyable – it is: it just isn't as interesting as the first 40 minutes.The film benefits greatly from location shooting, and all four principal characters give reasonable performances. Widmark is as reliable as ever, while Howard portrays Browne – the antithesis of all those stiff-upper-lipped WWII types he so often played – in exactly the same manner in which he played all those stiff-upper lip WWII types, and it works quite well. There's no hint of innate character deficiencies in the characterisations of the Nazi's either, no sneering disdain for anything non-German, no mad dreams of a resurgence of the Nazi dream. Howard and van Eyck are just a pair of criminals on the run, as desperate to escape their jungle prison as they are to evade capture.

It's hard for me to believe that this film has rated as low as it has. I found it an exciting, spellbinding and visually engrossing update of Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dagnerous Game". Having seen the original with Joel McCrea and Fay Wray this is clearly not a remake. The storyline is updated to a post WWII scenario replete with a British turncoat and Nazi fugitives in Mexico. But the basic concept of hunting down humans is intact. Both sides of the conflict are dealt with in an intelligent and even sensitive manner. The characters are all believable and their motives clearly enunciated. This is clearly not a simpleminded adventure but one dealing with complex human emotions. Much of the film's success is due to the three headliners, Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard and Jane Greer who perform admirably. All in all, highly recommended. Run out and get it, you'll spend a very enjoyable hour and a half.

I saw "Run For The Sun" with my grandmother who I talked into taking me to the movies. It was Toledo, Ohio, in 1956, and I was eight years of age. I only had a vague idea of what the film was all about, but in those days there was little chance of embarrassing one's grandmother with movie content. This was a great film. Trevor Howard gives a chilling performance. "Run For The Sun" appeared on television numerous times throughout the 60's, and perhaps into the early 70's, but it has been at least 20 years since I last saw the film. Does anyone know how one might get a DVD or VHS copy of this film? Jane Greer was great, as was Richard Widmark and Peter van Eyck. Jane Greer was quite attractive, and the interplay between her and Widmark was fun to watch. In one scene, the details of which I must omit so as not to reveal a central element of the plot, Widmark said, "The boys must have choked on their brandy when they found out who you were." Greer quickly shot back, "The one who really choked was you." A fine, memorable film it was.