Running Target

I first saw "Running Target" many years ago and it had already been kicking around on local TV networks for sometime. Originally released, no doubt, as a second feature with a much bigger movie, it has a typical '50's "B" list provenance with a cast of reliable "B" list stars, all of whom made many more flicks throughout that decade and beyond. By today's standards much of the dialogue and characterizations come across as hackneyed, trite and corny as hell - as a couple of previous reviewers have pointed out with varying degrees of articulation and insight - but... but... there's something undeniably different about this flick's story line and "feel" that just sticks with me after all these years - and I'm not alone in this thinking as several other reviewers have stated similar sentiments. If you're going to review a movie, whether a rave or a slam, at least make an attempt to put it is some sort of context relating to its era, the politics and the prevailing culture of the country at that time. This movie was released a scant ten years after WWll, three years after the Korean War. It was made during a period of unprecedented prosperity in America - the Eisenhower years - and only a few years after the Senator Joseph McCarthy Un-American activities witch hunts were conducted in which any entertainment figure with a hint of "leftist" activity was branded a communist by "tail-gunner" Joe. (Indeed, the three male leads, Franz, Healy and Reeves had all served in the war as combat veterans, with Franz actually shot down in his bomber over occupied Europe. No doubt many others in the production had served as well). Some reviewers take issue with the sheriff, Scott's, "liberal" or "pacifist" leanings throughout the movie: unlike Jaynes, he has no interest in killing any of the escapees. He wants to do his job with no bloodshed at all, if possible. Could it be that his character has already seen enough of killing in his lifetime; could it be that Jaynes just hasn't seen enough yet to satisfy his own blood lust? On the surface, the lone woman in the posse, Smitty, comes across as almost masculine in her resolve to get Kaygo as a supposed revenge for his and the other cons robbing her gas station. Could it be that as a single woman, successful and independent, very unusual for that time, Smitty had to be equally as tough and hard to survive in a very male-oriented environment? By the film's climax, that veneer cracks to reveal something entirely different about her own quest. The direction, camera-work, incidental music and yes, even the script, all hint at something more meaningful than the average "revenge manhunt in the Rockies" flick. I think that the movie achieves its goals, no matter how modest they were, at aspiring to something different, and yes, even a bit haunting, from what you might expect from an example of that genre, at that time.

In modern day, a posse of four men and a woman track four escaped convicts through a rugged mountain region.

The flick has one overriding virtue-- the gorgeous mountain scenery of south-central Colorado, beautifully photographed in Technicolor. In fact, the entire runtime never leaves the alpine setting, at least as far as I can tell. For a budget production the location expenses for cast and crew seem a rather daring gamble. Too bad the screenplay fails to approach the exquisite complexity of the setting.

On the whole, I agree with reviewer drystyx: the main characters are strictly one-dimensional, especially Franz's unbelievable sheriff. After all, if his humanitarian values so detest violence, what the heck is he doing as a sheriff where violence is inevitable. Worse, why doesn't the script at least give us a hint as to why he's now something of a pacifist or why he stays on as sheriff. That would have projected both an interesting and more believable character. As things stand he's something of an unfortunate caricature. Ditto for posse member Reeves' gun-loving killer. No complexity there either. When he and Franz clash, which is most of the time, it's more like two simple ideas clashing than two actual people.

Anyway, the movie's a payday for a number of fine villainous types of the day-- Reeves, Anderson, Healey, and Roth. Too bad another fine villain of the day Murvyn Vye's part appears edited down to a single frame (see reviewer efrazee for an explanation).

On the other hand, Dowling's shapely toughie amounts to the most interesting of the posse. At first I thought she was cast just to get a pretty woman for us guys instead of all the ugly men. But that climactic scene, shot from a distance, where she dances in a dress with escaped con Kaygo is inspired, implying as it does a secret motivation beyond our knowing. On the whole, the screenplay seems to be nibbling at something profound but without knowing how to bite. Too bad.

(In passing- in 1948 there was a big breakout from Colorado's state prison in Canon City. I mention this because Running Target was shot close by CC, perhaps inspiring the movie's breakout theme. In fact, a pretty good 1948 film, Canon City, focuses on that same event.)

Was curious about this movie because Richard Reeves had third billing for it. In dozens of movies he had played small parts of bad news enforcers . Usually it takes only one look at him to know he is looking for an excuse to be violent. For the most part in those movies his lines added up to only a minute or two so how would he do in this movie. Maybe having a bigger part would show that he was in above his head and disappoint . Glad to report that Richard Reeves did not miss a beat in a continuation of playing the heavy very well. The bigger part in the movie even calls for one character to analyse him and it seems very accurate . Reeves did have one line that made me laugh out loud ,that was different. If there is another Richard Reeves fan they need to see this movie. As far as the rest of the movie goes the viewer is on their own. Character study may find that Reeves part is the easiest to understand.

Do yourself a favor and read the short story by Steve Frazee this flick was based on: My Brother Down There. I stumbled across it and was really impressed, which is why I searched out this movie. Frankly, the movie doesn't capture the magic of the story but it does provide an added dimension that is interesting. There is no female character in the story so I was skeptical right off. Turns out, it doesn't hurt the overall flick. So, if you're disappointed in the flick don't discount the short story.

*****SPOILERS***** The film starts with an escaped convict gunned down on an open field by a sheriffs posse hot on his tail. It turns out that he was one of four escaped convicts from a local prison and with the others not that far ahead the posse of four men and one woman goes up the treacherous Rockies to capture them.

Right from the start there seems to be a deep resentment against the sharpshooter Jaynes, Richard Reeves, by everyone in the posse led by sheriff Scott, Arthur Franz, for the only reason that I can gather is that Jaynes is good at his job: shooting escaped convicts running away from the law and in many cases being armed and dangerous. The posse that Scott has with him includes a young woman ,Smitty, Doris Dowing. Smitty reasons for being there, besides knowing the area like the back of her hand, is that the leader and most dangerous of the escaped convicts Kaygo, Myron Healey, who's a convicted cop-killer once robbed her gas station and even worse stole her prized rifle.

As the last two out of three convicts are captured by the determined sheriffs posse Kaygo is tracked down into a valley. To the shock of sheriff Scott, who was starting to get very serious with Smitty in the romance department, he sees Smitty wearing a dress, which she secretly took with her, and frolicking with Kaygo! As Scott raises his rifle and aims it at Kaygo we hear a shot from the background and Kaygo fall dead on the ground. The shot came from Jaynes rifle that hit and killed Kaygo before Scott could pull the trigger. The movie ends with Scott angry and outraged taking Jaynes's prized and beloved Weatherbee 300 Magnum rifle, the best friend that a man can have, and smashing it to bits against a rock. Was Scott mad at Jaynes for killing Kaygo before he could have killed him himself? As the movie "Running Target" ends there's a very impressive shot, all in one frame, of the dead and blanket covered Kaygo in the foreground with Jayne in the middle sobbing and yelling at Scott, that he has to buy him a new rifle, with sheriff Scott and Smitty walking, in each other arms, up a hill with the majestic Rockie Mountains in the background.

This has to be one of the strangest movies ever made with a lawman leading a posse to capture four escaped convicts, two of them convicted murderers, acting like he was a defense attorney in a criminal trial! Like a defense attorney Scott is always trying to explain away the vicious actions and behavior of the convicts in defending their actions as if they've been mistreated when they were children. It's as if Scott was blaming everyone else, the police the courts the accused family and friends, for the crimes that the escaped convicts committed!

Smitty was understandable but very foolish, doesn't love make fools of us all, of being right in the open and dancing with Kaygo, her secret love, at the end of the movie. All this within sight of everyone in the posse where they can see that she was helping and abetting an escaped murderer from the law! What other conclusion can one come to? With the only exception of the escaped convicts who acted normal, like convicts, Jaynes who's the most believable and honest person in the movie was made to look like, by the filmmakers, a villain and cold blooded killer?

I just don't know what those who made the film "Running Target" were trying to say other then showing just what great liberals they are! It's in them going overboard in showing their ultra liberal prejudices for convicted and escaped convicts they actually approved the crimes that they had committed!