Run for Cover (USA, 1955) 91 min color DIR: Nicholas Ray. PROD: William H. Pine, William C. Thomas. SCR: Winston Miller. MUSIC: Howard Jackson. DOP: Daniel Fapp. CAST: James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors, John Derek, Jean Hersholt, Grant Withers, Jack Lambert, Ernest Borgnine, Ray Teal, Irving Bacon, Trevor Bardette, John Miljan. (Olive Films)
After director Nicholas Ray made the quirky cult western Johnny Guitar for Republic Pictures, he journeyed to Paramount for another offbeat western, also featuring a hero with a checkered past. Run for Cover is larger in visual scope to accommodate the widescreen of the studio’s Vista Vision, but it has a smaller ensemble, detailing a fascinating psychological relationship that slowly develops between the two protagonists.
Seasoned gunslinger Matt Dow (James Cagney) meets young Davey Bishop (John Derek, who made his debut in Ray’s Knock on Any Door) on the trail, and soon, the two men are accused of robbing a train. They are acquitted of the crime, but only after surviving a posse with a lynch-mob mentality egged on by a sheriff with a “shoot first ask questions later” work ethic. Davey is injured in the fracas, and recuperates at the farm of Mr. Swenson (Jean Hersholt). Dow dotes over him while he recovers, and also falls in love with Swenson’s daughter Helga (Viveca Lindfors).
In an effort to appease the men for the rough justice served him, the town offers Dow the job of sheriff, and Davey becomes his deputy. Dow’s belief in a civil justice system and one’s entitlement to a fair trail is often taken to task by Davey’s growing rebellious ways. While the film is not as cinematic as the Vista Vision would allow, it remains a fascinating, literate character study. This western is another Nicholas Ray story about outsiders: all of the principal characters are displaced by the governing societal norm. Dow must answer for his previous life as a convict (although he was pardoned); Davey remains half the man he aspires to be due to his leg injury.
Although leisurely paced, Run for Cover is interesting viewing, as the film seems to surprise with every other scene. What begins as another formula “wrongfully accused” melodrama shifts into a surrogate father-son relationship, as Davey replaced the son that Dow lost in his previous life as an outlaw. As such, the focus is on this male bonding, less so on Dow’s romance with Helga. Even so, everyone with in his immediate orbit suffers the consequences of having known him.
Run for Cover is presented in another bare bones release by Olive Films, in their nonetheless commendable efforts to unearth every unsung film in the Paramount vaults. I’m simply glad to be able to see it.
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue 25.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.