Prisionera de un amor

The picture starts with Nick (this is last movie of John Garfield ) and his colleague Al Molin (Norman Lloyd) stage a payroll holdup . Al is murdered, along with a police officer . Nick hides out in a plunge , and into a locker hides the robbed cash ; later on , he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters) . They go out from a public pool and return to her apartment and then Nick forces her family , father (Wallace Ford , John Ford's brother) , mother (Selena Royle) and child to hide him from the police chase .

This enjoyable film contains a relentless manhunt , thrills , suspense , violence and some elements of Noir cinema . Most actors , screenwriters , director were pursued by American government during ominous period of Mccarthismo. Interesting writing credits , written under pseudonyms , by Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler , front Guy Endore ; being based on a novel by Sam Ross . Very good acting by John Garfield as a violent and desperado delinquent . Garfield had a sad as well fruitful life , as he signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Won enormous praise for his role of the cynical Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (1938). Appeared in similar roles throughout his career despite his efforts to play varied parts , being his best film : Body and soul . Active in liberal political and social causes, he found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife, he succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend at 39. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino.

Atmosheric and appropriate cinematography in black and white by James Wong Howe who along with John Alton and Nicolas Musuraka are the main cameramen of Noir genre . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by the classic Franz Waxman . The motion picture was well directed by John Berry . Director John Berry and co-scripter Hugo Butler's names were removed from the credits for a time after release, due to the blacklisting of supposed Communist sympathizers at the time. Assistant director Emmett Emerson is thus often credited as the film's director . Berry Was named as a member of the Communist Party by Hollywood 10 member Edward Dmytryk in Dmytryk's 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, when the blacklisted director "named names" to revive his Hollywood career and effect a return from exile in Europe. After Dymytrk's testimony, the formerly disgraced director, who had served a prison term for defying HUAC in 1947, was allowed to resume his Hollywood career and direct movies in America, but Berry was blacklisted and went into exile in France. Ironically, Berry had directed the documentary The Hollywood Ten . Berry directed interesting films , such as 1955 Headlines of Destruction , 1949 Tension 1949 , 1948 Casbah ,1946 Cross My Heart and 1946 From This Day Forward , among others .

Worth seeing if for no other reason than Garfield's frantic, breathless performance. The storytelling is unsure at times, but his acting sure isn't. The guy performs as if he's looking straight down the barrel of a loaded shotgun. He really lets it fly over the film's very powerful last ten minutes. Also, Shelly Winters is much more effective here, in a role she virtually perfected (as the lonely, whimpering victim) than she was in the classic "A PLACE IN THE SUN", which also came out that year.

This strange entry in the noir canon features John Garfield delivering a sweaty, paranoid performance as a small-time crook who shoots a cop during a heist gone bad and then holes up with the family of a girl he meets and desperately latches himself on to (Shelley Winters). He virtually takes the family hostage, threatening to kill whichever member he has with him at the time if any of the other members try to seek help. Meanwhile, a game of patriarchal dominance begins between Garfield and the father, whose sense of masculinity is threatened by his inability to help his family. It all leads to a showdown in the street as Garfield attempts to run away with Winters, who may or may not have genuine feelings for him.

"He Ran All the Way" is more about the dynamics of family than anything else. In the first scene, we see what kind of home life Garfield's character comes from. His blowsy mom (played divinely by Gladys George, who has far too little screen time) verbally and physically abuses him, and then refuses to come to his aid later on when he's in trouble. As a result, Garfield tries to make a sort of surrogate family of the one he's taken hostage, attempting to establish a twisted kind of domestic tranquility, with himself as father figure. The most unsettling scene transpires at a family dinner, when Garfield forces the family at gunpoint to eat the meal he's prepared for them.

Throughout the film, Garfield acts with a desperate intensity you can practically smell. Unlike all of those cooler than cool crooks who populate the worlds of other noir films, Garfield is lousy as a criminal; his own paranoia and panic give him away at moments when he otherwise wouldn't be in any danger. Shelley Winters plays his love interest as a dowdy mope, the second time that year (see "A Place in the Sun") she played a frump who meets a good-looking lad and then regrets it. Wallace Ford and Selena Royle do the honors as mom and dad.

"He Ran All the Way" is not one of the more ambitious entries in the noir cycle, but like so many of the lurid, low-budget films that came out around this fertile period in cinema history, it has fascinating undertones that belie its simple plot.

With crisp photography by James Wong Howe and a propulsive, sensational score by that old pro Franz Waxman.

Grade: A-

"He Ran All The Way" is John Garfield's final film and he doesn't disappoint his fans. He is dynamic as a cop killer who is on-the-lam and hiding out in the apartment of a middle class family. The film is a taut thriller with many tense moments and Garfield pulls no punches while he devises an escape plan. The captive family is well played by Shelley Winters who falls for the thug, Wallace Ford and Selena Royle her parents and Bobby Hyatt the little brother. There is also a gem of a cameo performance from Gladys George as Garfield's mother and also by Norman Lloyd as his partner in crime. Alas Garfield displays all his bad boy mannerisms and gut wrenching force that we came to expect from him...and what also made him a star.

John Garfield's character in this movie makes his character in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE look like Mr. Easy Going. He's tight as a drum from the opening scene with his nasty mother, through the holdup (with snaky Norman Lloyd as his partner), his flight, and the long scenes with Shelley Winters' family.

Winters is appealing in her role as the plain girl who can't find a man. She falls for the dangerous and casually violent Garfield; but is she really in love with him or trying to assist in his capture? That's where the tension lies in this short thriller. Dalton Trumbo (uncredited as screenwriter) creates good dialog for all the cast members, and pulls together an exciting final 5 minutes with a few plot twists and a gut-wrenching ironic final shot. Catch it if you can, if you're a noir fan.