Run for Cover *** (1955, James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors, John Derek) – Classic Movie Review 12,374

Nicholas Ray’s hard-bitten 1955 widescreen colour Western film Run for Cover stars James Cagney on breakneck speed form as innocent ex-con Matt Dow.

Director Nicholas Ray’s 1955 Pine-Thomas Productions/ Paramount Pictures widescreen colour Western film Run for Cover [Colorado] stars James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors and John Derek.

Cagney is on breakneck speed form as Matt Dow for this hard-bitten Western about an innocent ex-con, freed after a six-year jail term, who gets mixed up with Davey Bishop (Derek) in a train heist. Later Matt Dow (Cagney) turns good when he is made local lawman, with the now crippled and bitter Derek as his deputy, who is still yearning for the outlaw life. Enter Gentry (Grant Withers) and his gang of baddies…

With their intense, credible performances, the strong cast pumps up the routine, familiar tale, and director Ray gives it an attractive edge of darkness.

Run for Cover is a handsome-looking, interesting curio, not as well known as most of Cagney’s and Ray’s work, and worthy of rediscovery and re-evaluation.

Also in the cast are Jean Hersholt, Grant Withers, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Lambert, Ray Teal, Irving Bacon, Trevor Bardette, John Miljan, Gus Schilling, Emerson Treacy, Denver Pyle, Henry Wills, Frank Cordell, Phil Chambers, Joe Haworth, and Harold Kennedy.

It is written by Winston Miller and William C Thomas from the story by married couple Harriet Frank Jr and Irving Ravetch. Harriet Frank Jr recalled: ‘We weren’t very picky in those days. What was presented was written.’

Jean Hersholt appears in his final film as Mr Swenson.

It is shot in VistaVision and Technicolor by Daniel L Fapp.

It is made by Pine-Thomas Productions and released by Paramount Pictures.

It is Ray’s second Western, after Johnny Guitar. It is Cagney’s first Western since The Oklahoma Kid (1939). His third and last Western is Tribute to a Bad Man (1956).

The cast are James Cagney as Matt Dow, Viveca Lindfors as Helga Swenson, John Derek as Davey Bishop, Jean Hersholt as Mr Swenson, Grant Withers as Gentry, Jack Lambert as Larsen, Ernest Borgnine as Morgan, Ray Teal as Sheriff, Irving Bacon as Scotty, Trevor Bardette as Paulsen, John Miljan as Mayor Walsh, Gus Schilling as Doc Ridgeway, Emerson Treacy, Denver Pyle, Henry Wills, Frank Cordell, Phil Chambers, Joe Haworth, and Harold Kennedy.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,374

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