Widmark & Howard Run For The Sun

[SteNottingham22]

Run For The Sun

It's so british that it defies belief, but it was actually an american produced film But it was directed by british Roy Boulting :) and in my opinion it was a film that was way ahead of it's time in loads of ways. It's one of these films that you think is british, but turns out to be american. But, to me it's all british.

It was shown on the now defunct Carlton Cinema (oh, how I miss yee) a couple of times. If anyone can help me with a copy I would be thrilled to the hilt. It's one wicked little thriller starring Richard Widmark as a pilot who crashes in a south american jungle with some reporter bird who hitched a lift home. When they are rescued by sinister Trevor Howard (what a performance!), they soon realise that they are far from safe. He turns out to be an Nazi on the run. Cue suspense, thrills, escape into the jungle and Trevor Howard with his evil nazi henchman and a couple of nasty looking dobermans. The hunt is on and they literally pursue Widmark and his bird through real jungle terrains. Howard is a hunter who prefers hunting humans to animals! And he has Widmark in his sights.

The film is chocked full of amazing visuals. Boulting's subjective camera work with the yellow plane crashing in the green canopy of the jungle has to be seen to be believed. He uses impressive wideshots in the film, and even though Carlton broadcast it in fullframe, you can still appreciate the vast vistas of the stunning jungle locations. Originally it was filmed in monolithic 2.35:1. I wish I could see it in that format. Maybe I can because I've read that the american TCM show this film a lot, maybe they show it in it's full widescreen glory.

If anyone can help, I'd love to see this film again. I so want to write an article on it as a perfect example of a near forgotten film.

Incidentally, and much to my shock, Boulting ripped off the end of Fritz Lang's Manhunt, the similarities are scene for scene, even down to camera angles!

[Hackett]

Always worth his money Trevor Howard. His book "TREVOR HOWARD A PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY" he wrote with Terence Pettigrew is a good read. Barry Norman said that Howards career sufferd a lot in his later life not because he liked the odd drink, but that a lot of American "STARS" were scared of him acting them off the screen. In "VON RYAN'S EXPRESS" 1965 he's the best thing in it. Even with the worst lines in the script. Just being a feed for Sinatra to come out with the bleeding obvious. His Bligh in the 1962 "MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY", Lord Cardigan in "THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE" 1968 and Father Collins in Lean's "RYAN'S DAUGHTER" 1971 are, well should, have been award winning roles.

[DAVID RAYNER]

RUN FOR THE SUN was actually filmed in the now defunct SuperScope and the projected anamorphic ratio would have been more like 2:1 than 2.35:1, so you're not really missing much of the image at the sides when it's shown full screen on television.

[aphra]

Run For The Sun

I have got a good VHS of this.

and we can talk further.

[dylan]

Run for the Sun was a remake of The Most Dangerous Game (1932) aka The Hounds of Zaroff starring Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks.

Other remakes are A Game Of Death (1945) and Hard Target (1993).

[Rob Compton]

While we're on the subject of Trevor Howard, one of my very favourite British films is The Clouded Yellow (1950) with him and Jean Simmons. Great use of locations in the Lake District and the final chase scenes (anyone know where they were filmed?)

rgds
Rob

[Bernie]

I agree - Clouded Yellow is a wonderful film to watch! The final chase scenes are (skillfully) filmed at Liverpool docks.

[Rob Compton]

Thanks Bernie!

rgds
Rob

[SteNottingham22]

I haven't been in here for a while so I haven't been able to respond to the posts to my original post.
Thanks everyone for the replies and help. However, C5 yesterday broadcast Run For The Sun in
superb quality, so aphra, thanks for the offer of the VHS copy but I recorded it myself on video.
[ grits teeth | 3 weeks and I would have been able to record it on DVD! ]

I love this film so much no one knows. It's a first rate thriller, super odd with Trevor Howard giving
a right creepy performance. Also, something I noticed, couldn't help notice, was that the print C5
broadcast had a few extra scenes in, just a few shots, but it made all the difference. I think the old
Carlton print must have been censored. There was a scene with the doberman where Widmark
stabs him, that was longer as they fight, and there was a shot of Widmarks bloody back that I
can never remember seeing. And I can never remember the music being so prominant, loud, and
so damn good :) .

There were a few shots at the end of the film, which I know was cut because my
reaction was horror when I saw it. Widmark is in the plane and one of the Nazi's fires at him. In
the original they fly off over the canopy and escape. In the C5 version, to my shock horror and
delight Widmark smashes the right plane wing into his face. Killing him in a a quite shocking
subjective camera angle, hurtling him back onto the grass. Pretty strong stuff for 1956.

So I'm pleased to bits that I've finally got the film on tape and more pleased that it was a different
version to Carlton. I'm sure there were some other bits, as
the film did seem longer than Carlton, especially the jungle scenes. I cannot remember seeing
the angle on Howard as he gets shot, I'm sure on the Carlton print we just see him falling back.
Did anyone else notice these scenes?

Also, David Rayner, I hate to be a bore but about the SuperScope. I'm an avid fan of old films in
widescreen. My point is this, SuperScope does have a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 as the
process was specifically intended as an indie version of CinemaScope. Five films were made
using the SuperScope process, actually termed SuperScope 235, hence the 2.35:1 ratio. Four
of the five films that utilised the SuperScope 235 process were UK productions. And the process
is by no means defunct. The last film to use the process was a british film called, Dark Summer.
Rank Film Laboratories in Denham developed the 35mm film stock and the production utilised the
Arriflex 35 BL4 [Blimped] with Arriflex 2C Canon Lenses.

And I love Trevor Howard films. The more he drank the more character lines he got on his face.
He was a superb character actor. Rob Compton, I haven't seen The Clouded Yellow but it sounds wonderful.
Other locations used in the film were County Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. When and what channel was
The Clouded Yellow on, u remember?

[DAVID RAYNER]

Hi, Steve. I'm very pleased you finally got RUN FOR THE SUN. I watched it yesterday on C5.

About SuperScope, however. I was a cinema projectionist in the 1950's and 1960's and the original SuperScope was a completely different ratio to SuperScope 235. I ran quite a few films in the SuperScope process: Vera Cruz (the first SuperScope picture); Son of Sinbad; Bundle of Joy; Run of the Arrow; The Treasure of Pancho Villa; Bengazi; Underwater; Run for the Sun; Invasion of the Body Snatchers and quite a few more. The anamorphic image on the film was a narrow band of picture bordered on each side by grey bands. When this image was projected at 2 x 1 expansion through the anamorphic lens, the picture width was halfway between wide screen 1.85:1 and CinemaScope 2.35:1 and the masking on the screen had to be closed in to between these two sizes to mask the image.

I still have some old 35mm SuperScope clippings that I have kept from my projectionist days and these prove what the picture width of Run for the Sun would originally have looked like. It was an odd process, but some people said that SuperScope (not SuperScope 235) seemed to have a greater depth of image than CinemaScope. In fact, SuperScope's shape on the screen was more like a VistaVision image that had been slighltly cropped top and bottom...but without the high image definition of VistaVision, of course.

FOOTNOTE: Around 1957, some RKO Radio SuperScope pictures were billed on the opening credits as being in "RKO-Scope", but it was still SuperScope in all but name.

[Rob Compton]

Re The Clouded Yellow - definitely a Channel 4 weekday afternoon slot (Gawd bless em!) but haven't seen it for some time. If you see it advertised, do try to catch it, it's well worth it in my opinion.

Rob