Plot
Petty thief Nick Robey botches a robbery, shooting and killing a policeman and leaving his partner Al severely wounded. Nick escapes with over $10,000 and, deliberately losing himself in the crowd, arrives at a local swimming pool. At the pool, he meets bakery worker Peg Dobbs and accompanies her to her family's apartment. Peg's mother, father and young brother leave to see a movie. When they return, Robey takes the family hostage until he can escape.
As a manhunt for Nick begins outside, he becomes increasingly paranoid. Peg's initial attraction to him is replaced by fear. Her mother and father plead with Nick to leave, to no avail. He permits Mr. Dobbs to leave for work, warning him of the consequences should the police be contacted. Peg continues to go to work. Her father tells her to stay away, but she returns later that night. Peg phones Nick's mother, asking her to meet Nick to give her some money, but she refuses. Peg agrees to go away with Nick and he gives her $1,500 to buy a new car.
The next day, Nick argues with Mr. Dobbs but allows him to leave when Peg returns. Influenced by Dobbs' insistence that Peg will not buy the car, Nick refuses to believe Peg, who insists that the car will be delivered to the front door after the dealer has the headlights repaired. As he leaves, Dobbs meets Mrs. Dobbs and tells her to take their son and not return, and they go to the police. Nick notices how quiet the neighborhood is and is scared that the police are outside. Nick violently takes Peg down the stairs toward the exit, terrifying her. Mr. Dobbs, who had been waiting outside, shoots at Nick when they reach the door. When Nick's gun drops beyond his reach and he orders Peg to hand it to him, she shoots him instead. Nick, mortally wounded, crawls outside to the curb in time to see his new car arrive. The police arrive shortly after Nick dies.
Production
He Ran All the Way was Garfield's final film. He was "greylisted" following accusations of his involvement with the Communist Party USA. Testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he repudiated communism, denied party membership and claimed that he did not know any members of the Communist Party during his time in Hollywood, "because I was not a party member or associated in any shape, way, or form". [2] [3] He testified on April 23, 1951, just two months before He Ran All the Way was scheduled to open on June 19. Garfield died less than one year later on May 21, 1952 at age 39.
Communist writer Dalton Trumbo, sentenced to prison time following his conviction for contempt of Congress, had signed to write the screen adaptation of Sam Ross's novel in 1947. According to Trumbo's son Christopher, Guy Endore revised Trumbo's script, as did director John Berry. In a 1997 letter to the Writers Guild of America West, which was seeking to restore credits to allegedly blacklisted members, Trumbo's widow Cleo stated that their friend and fellow writer Hugo Butler had been asked by Trumbo to ensure that the script not be altered while he was incarcerated, and Butler restored much of the original material, adding some of his own. [2]
When the film opened in June 1951, the screenplay was credited to Endore and Butler with John Berry credited as the director. [4] [5] Just prior to the premiere, Berry and Butler were subpoenaed by HUAC, and producer Bob Roberts removed their names from advertising, first in the trade press and then in the general press as the film circulated. [6] [7]
Trumbo was paid $5,000 and five percent of the producers' profits on the condition that the film would cost no more than $400,000, with the possibility that it might cost $100,000 less than that, but he complained to Roberts that the costs had grown to about $650,000, adding, "and that came right out of my pocket". [2] Variety observed, "Production budget seems limited to insure safe returns" and predicted, "pic should do biz". [4] At the end of the year, Variety estimated that He Ran All the Way would gross $1 million in the domestic market, its threshold for reporting the top-grossing films of the year. [8] Less than a month after Garfield's death in May 1952, United Artists announced the rerelease of the film, along with that of three others, in the summer of that year. [9]
Reception
When the film was released, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther praised Garfield's work, writing:
John Garfield's stark performance of the fugitive who desperately contrives to save himself briefly from capture is full of startling glints from start to end. He makes a most odd and troubled creature, unused to the normal flow of life, unable to perceive the moral standards of decent people or the tentative advance of a good girl's love. And in Mr. Garfield's performance, vis-a-vis the rest of the cast, is conveyed a small measure of the irony and the pity that was in the book. [5]
Variety called the film "a taut gangster pic," and wrote: "Good production values keep a routine yarn fresh and appealing. Film is scripted, played and directed all the way with little waste motion, so that the suspense is steady and interest constantly sustained." [10]
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