(1951)3Bruce EderJohn Garfield's final film was completed and released (through United Artists) the year before his death at age 39. It is of a piece with Body and Soul (1947) and Force of Evil (1948), produced -- as were those others -- by Bob Roberts, and directed by John Berry, who was a future blacklistee, as were the directors of the two earlier movies, Robert Rossen and Abraham Polonsky. And as with those earlier films, He Ran All the Way embraces lots of dark social and psychological themes in the course of telling what, on its surface, seems to be an action-oriented story.
Garfield is excellent in a difficult role, playing a dangerous (and mostly unpleasant) character in Nick Robey, and walking a fine line all the way through between evoking revulsion and fear -- over what he has done and what he always seems poised to do next -- and vulnerability and momentary flashes of sympathy. Robey's only slightly redeeming qualities may be the combination of his very slightly "soft" edge, which puts him just a step or two away from starting out as a habitual murderer, and his slightly (but definitely) limited intelligence, which combine to make it difficult for him to form the sustained, conscious intent -- in the intellectual sense -- to kill someone; his obvious past victimization by an alcoholic mother (Gladys George); and the moments of unintended articulation that come out of his mouth, as when he is able to say, in an aside when he is threatening to kill a hostage, that a stray cat would have been treated better than he is. He might not be the brightest man in the world, but he's not blind, and he is sensitive in his own peculiarly vicious way. Of course, this observation and the motivations behind it only point up the sociopathic nature behind Nick's persona -- he is oblivious to the fact that he was the one who felt threatened by something perfectly innocent, and panicked, and pulled his gun and started this nightmare. Garfield's success is in convincingly evoking a character driven by paired feelings of deprivation and entitlement -- an extremely dangerous combination in a man carrying a gun -- and, yet, imparting just enough sympathy and humanity to Nick that one can accept (or, at least, not scoff at) the idea that a shy, lonely girl like Peg might actually be ready to run off with him, if it would also help to save her family. This was one of the two or three most difficult roles of Garfield's career, as he plays the ultimate outsider, a completely alienated sociopath; peculiarly enough, the most sadistic moment in the movie comes not in the shootings, but an scene involving a sewing machine and an accident caused by his character's incessant tormenting of Mrs. Dobbs (Selena Royle). This is a moment when Nick cracks and, for an instant, feels genuine remorse, and Garfield is totally convincing in the scene.
Shelley Winters also shows more depth, range, and intensity than most filmgoers thought possible at this early stage of her career -- she matches Garfield perfectly, and the rest of the cast (especially Royle and Wallace Ford) also rises to the occasion. James Wong Howe's cinematography is first-rate, filled with gorgeous, threatening shadows, odd angles, and compelling close-ups, and Franz Waxman's score is surprisingly inventive, even working in moments of lightness, as in one night-time scene involving Nick and a boy hostage that is scored to solo clarinet. And as with Body and Soul and Force of Evil, the movie is filled with blacklistees, including one-time Broadway star Selena Royle, character actor Norman Lloyd, and producer Roberts, and director Berry, who subsequently moved to France.
Nick Robey (John Garfield) is a down-on-his-luck two-bit hood, fast on his feet but a little slow on the uptake. His running buddy, Al Molin (Norman Lloyd), does most of the thinking for him, which includes a payroll heist that goes horribly wrong when a cop spots them just as they've slugged the man with the cash. Al is wounded and caught, but Nick manages to get away, shooting the police officer in the process. He remembers Al's last instructions, to act calmly and melt into the crowd, but Nick isn't quite able to do that -- he hides out at a public swimming pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters), a nice but shy working girl, and convinces her to let him take her home. Once there, he tries to spend a normal evening, as though he were on a date, while her mother (Selena Royle), father (Wallace Ford), and younger brother (Bobby Hyatt) go out to a movie. But he can't relax, and their return rattles Nick enough so that he pulls his gun and reveals who he is and what he's done. This is one of several miscalculations that Nick makes in the course of holding the family hostage over the next two days. He initially plans on leaving in the morning, but when he discovers that the police officer whom he shot has died, and that they know who he is, he has to stay, letting the Dobbs family go about their business but always keeping at least one of them at home with him as a hostage, to make sure the others don't talk to the police. The family's plight is further complicated by the fact that Peg is truly attracted to him, despite what he's done, and seems willing to risk a great deal to see her family safe and him safely away from their home. She wants to love him, but discovers that someone who can't trust anyone for more than a few seconds at a time -- forget the gun he's always threatening to use -- can't even feel love, much less act on those feelings. Meanwhile, the police dragnet keeps getting tighter, and Peg's father knows he has to act soon to end this situation before the authorities come knocking on his door and Nick starts shooting.
