Der zweite Mann

Watchable but somehow unmemorable suspense thriller from a major British director. The plot, cleverly written by John Mortimer, has some quite subtle twists and turns; the acting good. Laurence Harvey as a dislikeable insurance fraudster, Lee Merick is particularly fetchi9ng as his increasingly uncertain wife, Alan Bates gives his usual sensitive performance as investigator who might be on to them, all convince. But Carol Reed (director of such classics as The third Man, Odd Man Out, Oliver) never manages to give it quite enough urgency or edge. It all comes across as something of a pot-boiler in his career. The scenery in Spain and Gibraltar is atmospheric, but it's one of those films that relies just a bit too heavily on pleasing sunny locations.

Good drama with a bit of mystery thrown in. It's hard to say what's more beautiful in this movie the locations, which are breathtaking or Lee Remick and Alan Bates both at the peak of their individual attractiveness who are equally stunning. They offer the best performances doing an uncertain dance around each other never sure of the other's motives. Laurence Harvey is his usual squirrelly pompous self but that fits the role. Well known to be an abrasive, selfish, uncooperative and egotistical jerk behind the scenes Harvey apparently was incredibly difficult on this shoot to the point where Lee Remick refused to discuss the problems but was quoted as saying "The tales I can tell of working with him are too horrendous to repeat." Not a classic Reed film but he guides the film well although apparently his confidence had been shaken by exiting another troubled production, the Marlon Brando Mutiny on the Bounty, just prior to this.

This movie had the misfortune of being released just around the time of JFK's assassination, where it got swallowed up in the general grief of the time. It did not do well at the box office, and one of its publicity stunts backfired when Dallas police saw personal ads in the newspaper signed by "Lee" and asking to meet up at an appointed place. The police thought it might be a Lee Harvey Oswald connection, not a Lee Remick stunt -- and spent some time chasing down this blind alley.

I caught the film while flipping channels in the middle of the night and quite enjoyed it.

Laurence Harvey plays an airline pilot/owner who loses out when a two-days' late insurance premium lets his insurance company deny his legitimate claim after he crashes his plane in the sea, narrowly escaping with his life. An honest guy with a love of risk-taking and a mutually reciprocated passion for his beautiful wife, Lee Remick, he decides to get back at the insurance company by faking his own death, with his wife's reluctant collusion. She hopes that this will get his anger out of his system and give them enough money to live comfortably, which seems to be why she goes along with the scheme. But at heart she just wants a quiet, comfortable life, an "ordinary life", she tells him. He, however, takes to life at the edges quite wonderfully, and pretty soon he's all about living the high life and risking their freedom with additional swindling schemes.

Alan Bates plays the insurance investigator who comes round to the wife asking questions after her husband's "death". He has a whole Columbo thing going on, asking questions in an affable, bumbling way that always seems to indicate he knows more than he is letting on. He turns up again in Malaga, Spain, where the couple has gone with the insurance money to start their new life. Again, he's got the questions that could be innocent or could be a dogged inspector following his prey.

Harvey decides that the best way to keep an eye on Bates is to invite him along to enjoy the Malaga sun and surf with the two of them. The three of them hang out together, swimming and eating and drinking and enjoying what Bates says is his vacation time and Harvey claims is a working vacation. Remick is supposed to be the new widow, technically single, who gravitates to the orbit of the Australian rich guy that Harvey is impersonating.

At the movie's emotional core is, yes, a love triangle, as Lee Remick grows disenchanted with her husband's attraction to the James Bond lifestyle while discovering that Alan Bates likes museums and quiet walks, like she does, and seems to like her.

So it's cat and mouse between the two guys on two levels -- over the insurance money and over the woman. The Malaga locations are glorious and reminded me of the villages in Romancing the Stone where Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas run across weddings, dancing, and general romantic danger.

The movie doesn't take itself seriously, and the characters are conflicted in a way that you don't know what to hope for and what the final moral and romantic resolutions will be. Will the husband redeem himself? Will the wife stay true to him or fall in with the man who is on his tail? Harvey is not irredeemable and we do feel sympathy for him, and see that he is more oblivious to his wife's unhappiness than deliberately mean. He treats her as an extension of himself and just doesn't recognize that she has no interest in playing Bonnie to his Clyde.

Good flick. Not great, but good.

This movie surprised me. It started out as one type of movie and ended up as another - it was a pleasant enough surprise though.

Laurence Harvey plays charter pilot Rex Black who fakes his death allowing his wife, Stella, to claim the insurance. Although Harvey was not particularly loved by many of his peers, he made some great movies. I always liked him and his Rex Black is cocky and edgy.

Lee Remick plays Stella. Time spent watching Lee Remick on the screen is never wasted. She was an actress whose abilities were sometimes under-appreciated because she was so beautiful. She is as disarming here as she was in everything she did.

Alan Bates plays Stephen Maddux, an insurance agent who investigates Rex's death and later fancies Stella when they cross paths in Spain - he thinks she is a widow, and Rex assumes another identity. Bates plays it low key while Harvey's character becomes darker and more aggressive as he attempts further scams, and is prepared to do anything to stop his plans unravelling.

Sadly all three actors went far too early - cancer in each case.

Directed by Carol Reed, the film has an unusual energy. It starts out as a light caper film, but by the half way mark we realise that the game has become more dangerous. The ending has a similar touch to the one that made "The Third Man" so memorable.

The film was made in 1963, and although it benefits from great locations in Spain, it actually feels a little like British films of the 40's and 50's.

The score by William Allwyn has a lot to do with that. For a long while British film music had a distinctive sound with some brilliant scores. It had a different timbre to the typical Hollywood score. You could tell a film was British as soon as the main title music started, but by the late 50's, composers like John Barry and John Addison brought a fresh sound that was far more international. However the score for "The Running Man" was a throwback - it was Allwyn's last score - maybe Reed had asked for him - but it could almost be a score for a film in 1948.

Although "The Running Man" does not represent the best work of those involved it is more than watchable and has a couple of twists worthy of Hitchcock.

The first half of the movie could have been handled better. The appearance of the supposedly deceased Rex Black a few moments after his mourners have departed his flat, and at the same time as a visit from an insurance investigator leads to something that resembles a scene from a bedroom farce without the laughs. When the action switches to Malaga things improve significantly, partly because it's beautifully filmed but mainly because Lee Remick and Alan Bates are convincing and appealing together. This was an early glimpse of what a fine, sympathetic leading man Alan Bates would be for decades to come. Unfortunately it was also confirmation of Laurence Harvey's limitations. A better, more subtle actor might have retained at least part of our sympathy to the end, giving the final twist an element of tragedy. Harvey loses the audience every time he opens his mouth, though, and that torpedoes The Running Man in spite of the good work of his co-stars and the attention to detail of gifted cinematographer Robert Krasker. Worth watching but a missed opportunity.