Memorable, crazy movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

As Good As It Gets

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

John Garfield plays a troubled and confused robber named Nick Robey whose problems are further exasperated as he is unemployed and lives at home with his mother who is not very loving or understanding. So Nick is trying to figure out what to do with his life when he is literally pushed out of his bed and onto the street by his pestering mother and he is greeted by a waiting shark named Al Molin (played by Norman Lloyd best known for his TV role as Dr. Daniel Auschlander in the 1982-88 hospital drama St. Elsewhere) who has talked Nick into a surefire plan of robbing a manufacturing plant of their weekly payroll.The robbery does not go as it was planned but Nick does escape with a briefcase full of $10K cash but he needs a place to hide after shooting a cop while getting away from the robbery. Nick decides to hang out on the beachfront in an indoor public pool where he accidentally collides into a novice and naive young female named Peggy Dobbs played brilliantly by Shelly Winters.As Nick's head is swirling with where to hide and when to make his getaway his paranoia comes to a head and he convinces the naive Peggy Dobbs to allow him just to walk her home. Poor naive Peg agrees to have Nick walk her home and she invites him into her upstairs apartment which Peg shares with her parents and younger brother Tommy. John Garfield lives an isolated existence both physically and more importantly emotionally. When the pressure of the police potentially closing in on him becomes far too much for him to bear Nick misled by his delusional paranoia he makes a decision that he will keep the four (4) Dobbs family members hostage in their upstairs apartment until the heat dies down and he can figure out how and when to make his getaway.John Garfield plays the paranoid plant robber on the run with great emotion and fear. His screen performance portrays a young man who just seems lost and wanting for someone, anyone, to show him some semblance of love and understanding. So Nick reaches out to his mother but even she turns him down. The only one left that Nick believes he can even remotely rely on anymore is this young naive girl Peg who he is holding as a hostage with the rest of her family. Emotions are running at a fervor pace throughout the scared Dobbs family and over the next 48 hours young Peg continues to have empathy for Nick as she realizes he is lost and has no one in his life. The climax of this film is well done and reflects the troubled times of the 1940's and 1950's when film noir and guns went hand in hand with emotion and struggling families.I give the 1951 black and white John Garfield film "He Ran All the Way" a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

A neurotic, jumpy stick up man, well played by John Garfield in his final role, has killed a cop in a botched robbery and takes a family hostage while he tries to figure out his next move. Recalling somewhat similar (and better) films like "The Desperate Hours" (the 1955 version) and "The Petrified Forrest", this tries to deal on more psychological terms of the tormented bad guy and his victims, but it sometimes feels overblown, and at others downright illogical. Shelly Winters plays the 'good' daughter with a yen to go bad, falling for Garfield (although he's so convincing at being a psychological mess, it's a little hard to buy she falls as hard and fast as she does). None-the–less, the tension level stays pretty high throughout, the film looks good, and Garfield does create a pretty complex and unique anti-hero, longing to trust people, but never able to. If not a classic, certainly worth seeing if you like the genre. Sadly, it seems to be out-of-print in the U.S. I had to get my copy from the U.K.

I just wanted to add my voice to the host of reviewers who have noted that this is a great film with a great last performance by John Garfield. The beautifully shot scenes by James Wong Howe of New York reminded me of "Dead End" and the many television series and movies shot in the 1950's and early 60's in New York. This film is evidence that the House Unamerican Activities Committee was a blight on the land that badly damaged cinematic art in this country. HUAC and the Hays Moral Code were the two worse catastrophes to hit Hollywood in the 20th Century. Excellent performances and solid Hollywood production values send it to the top of the must see Film Noir list.

John Garfield ("Nick Robey") started his stage-career at a very early age and with an unusual talent of really getting into his characters. Unfortunately, Hollywood didn't do too well in casting him in better roles. Because he was so young, he was somewhat of a "pretty boy", except his youth was spent on the tough streets of NYC. He had the experience behind his tough-guy roles. During his stage-career - pre-Hollywood - he was a sure winner for "Golden Boy", a dramatic story of a young violinist with just as much punch in the boxing-ring. That role didn't come till much later; William Holden played the original. When Garfield finally played it, he studied with Isaac Stern (who did the real fiddlin'). Garfield's acting was truly convincing; this would have been a wonderful, final film. It was not to be. He moved back and forth between NYC and Hollywood, which couldn't cast him right, although he was a major star at his death. Good looks and a beautiful smile will get you lots of places."He Ran all the Way" was another version of minor crime-stories for so many of Hollywood's young actors. Garfield had an edge over most of them, because he was a very good actor. Unfortunately, a very weak heart and extreme good looks done him in.......he died at 39. TCM did an original "letterbox," with his daughter doing the narration, with lots of pictures.Director John Berry was excellent following the plot written by black-listed Dalton Trumbo (original book, Sam Ross) following the ritual of early cops-and-robbers films. "Robey" pulls-off a petty robbery; he wounds a cop; his partner gets shot; "Robey" begins running into the crowd on the streets. Garfield did an excellent job of portraying a frightened crook with major paranoia. He follows the crowd into a public swimming-pool where he meets sexually repressed "Peggy Dobbs" (Shelley Winters). Predictably, he winds-up in her home, taking her family hostage for a hide-out. "Peggy's" mom and dad (Wallace Ford, Selena Royle) seem to be really glad some guy has finally found her attractive; they don't know how to handle the hostage situation, but did very good acting. Again predictably, "Peggy" falls for "Robey", but is torn between terror for her family and love for him. It becomes apparent that "Robey" was pretty-much finished with running......Although Garfield threw himself into this role, his disappointment in its finished product - and his constant philandering - he most probably knew his career was coming to an end. The movie-industry dropped him when the committee hunting-down communists among Hollywood stars disclosed he had had dealings with those radicals for a long period, and his wife was a party-member. He refused to testify, but did not learn that Clifford Odets testified for him - he died first. Many careers and lives were ruined by The House un-American......Too handsome, genuine too macho-hunky made John Garfield a misfit for Hollywood. He excelled in the roles he was given there, but realized his niche was on the stage in NYC. Who knows how many great films he could have made, had not Hollywood and "the committee" done a job on him. Watch this film with respect for a very good actor whose potential was barely shown. "He Ran all the Way" was Garfield's last run.