Synopsis
The story of a man apart... who brought faith to a youth, love to a woman, justice to a land!
An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.
Run for Cover
1955 Directed by Nicholas Ray
Cast
Director
Assistant Director
Producers
Writers
Editor
Cinematography
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Composer
Costume Design
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Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Alternative Titles
Colorado, 荒城荡寇战, All'ombra del patibolo, Busca tu refugio, À l'ombre des potences, Im Schatten des Galgens, В укрытии, Útěk do bezpečí, Fora das Grades, Ο Στιγματισμένος, Sendas amargas, 寻求庇护, برای پوشش اجرا کنید, Kanlı intikam, 추적자, Busca el teu refugi, Rid för livet, Fora das grades
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USANR
28 Sep 1955
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Germany12
Releases by Country
Germany
28 Sep 1955
- Theatrical12
USA
29 Apr 1955
- TheatricalNR
Popular reviews
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Action! - The Postwar Hollywood 3: A Raybel With A Cinematic Cause
Continuing Nicholas Ray's streak of Westerns, this time with a blonde and righteous James Cagney at the helm, the film follows a former outlaw who moves to a new town in hopes of finding redemption and love, only to have his past catch up with him.
Even though James Cagney is widely recognized for his portrayals of notorious gangsters and villains, I find him most endearing when he plays the kind guy with a heart of gold or the charming dancer. That's especially true of movies where he gets to play a good guy with a bit of an edge, or roles that allow him to bring together…
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Ray and Cagney combine for some beautiful quiet work here. The film has busy always moving structure that suggests a forgotten 30s programmer but remains very grounded throughout. Cagney’s perseverance in front of a life of disappointments is the best use of the actor’s mature strengths in any of his post war roles.
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Though in many ways James Cagney still looked youthful in 1955, the reality was that, Well into his 50s, he was physically limited and nearing the end of his career. Happily for Nicholas Ray and Run for Cover, Cagney's age and life experience served to dramatically elevate what otherwise might have been a less than memorable western.
When we meet Cagney's Matt Dow, he's threatening a kid (Davey, prettily played by John Derek) at a watering hole, sternly telling the 20-year-old that his quiet approach to a man with a gun nearly got him killed. With remarkable speed, though, all of the roughness falls away and Dow is more of a friendly uncle, joking with him and, when the two…
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I think the main reason why I'm not a fan of Cagney's (few) Westerns is that, at 5'5", when he puts on a Tom Mix hat, he looks like a character from Hattytown Tales.
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Certain actors got stereotyped during the Golden Age of Hollywood, whether it was in Noirs or Westerns, Musicals or Gangster films, and breaking out of those stereotypes proved difficult for some. The Studio system saw them control who did what, and their big stars made big money for them, so why risk having them do something that might not work? The Musical genre had Fred and Ginger, Judy Garland, Esther Williams, and a host of others. Noirs had Alan Ladd, Humphrey Bogart, Glenn Ford, Victor Mature, and more, and the Westerns had Wayne, Cooper, McCrea, and many many more. And then there was the Gangster genre, led by Edward G. Robinson, George Raft, Humphrey Bogart (again), and a certain Mr.…
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Spectacular. Sudden turns and people’s imprevisibility, second chances and quick judgements, tragedy and miracle - but sadly miracles don’t come on pairs.
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Nicholas Ray is one of the true masters of Old Hollywood and has not failed me so far. With 'Johnny Guitar' being one of my all time favourite westerns, I was looking forward to this slightly lesser known genre entry from the following year - and while 'Run for Cover' doesn't quite reach the same heights, it's still a really good one.
James Cagney and John Derek star as two men who meet by chance and immediately get accused of a crime that didn't actually happen, which leads to Derek getting shot down by the incompetent sheriff, while Cagney has to clear their name.
This is pretty much only the first ten minutes of the movie, but it's a great… -
Matt Dow is a wanderer looking for a job and a place to live. He befriended a kid named Davey Bishop and while the two were on the way to town they were mistaken as train robbers and ambushed by the sheriff and his deputies, and in the process young Bishop lost his leg. And when the townpeople learn about the truth they offer the Sheriff position to Dow as the compensation. Dow takes the place and makes Bishop a deputy, but Bishop can't get rid of bitterness and anger so he makes a deal with a gang of bandits to get back at townfolks and Dow is now forced to make the most difficult decision of standing up to…
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*SPOILERS. TAKE CARE*
It’s ridiculous that this film isn’t better known – so much of the canon seems to simply be dictated by which films have been widely available at certain times.
Run for Cover, released five months before the same director’s Rebel without a Cause, finds Nick Ray tiring of the young rebel character he had created in They Live by Night and Knock on Any Door, as everyman Jimmy Cagney invests heart and soul in self-pitying, no-good John Derek. If that seems unexpected, then so is everything else about this Western, from an opening anti-heist to a climactic non-shootout among Aztec ruins.
Shot like an Eastwood film and plotted like a Boetticher, it’s resistant to the mythos of…
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Siempre me ha llamado la atención la escasa fama de esta película, para mí una de las mejores y más perfectas, posiblemente la más madura, amarga y equilibrada de cuantas hizo Nicholas Ray. Nadie parece acordarse de ella, nunca se menciona, ni se incluye en votaciones de los mejores «westerns», tal vez porque al mencionarse este género en relación con Ray se piensa indefectiblemente en Johnny Guitar. Menos original en apariencia, desde luego más modesta, no llamó la atención de la crítica ni del público en el momento de su estreno y nunca se ha repuesto ni se ha convertido en un objeto de «culto» para los cinéfilos: habrá que esperar a que se reconozca a James Cagney como uno…
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This little-known gem by Nicholas Ray happens to be one of his best films. It's a western with an episodic hawksian structure - it takes a while to understand where the plot is going. The episodes are mainly about two things: 1) how quickly and harshly we judge each other; 2) the relationship between an imperfect father (a wonderful James Cagney) and his imperfect adoptive son. And I like how the ending complicates both things.
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Really cool Western by Ray that the Letterboxd community has been sleeping on. Also, striking how a young Ernest Borgnine looks a lot like an old James Cagney.
There's a shot early on where Dow makes the crippled Davey stand up using a chair and face him like a man - as he does this, there's a first person shot from Davey that slowly rises until he's level with Dow. At the end of the film, in very different circumstances, it's put in reverse as Dow walks down steps and has the same first person shot as he comes down to Davey's eye level. It's just one of the many examples of Ray as a great maker of poetry with…