Run for the Sun (1956)

This film is right up my alley and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It's a nice, solid action film. I've been wanting to see this one since I watched The Most Dangerous Game and found out that this movie was also based on the original short story. Thanks to Netflix's streaming video, I finally got to see it. When I originally saw The Most Dangerous Game, I thought Run for the Sun would not be as good. I was wrong.

Richard Widmark, Jane Greer, Trevor Howard, and Peter van Eyck star, and everybody's in fine form, particularly Richard Widmark. I would not mind crash landing in the jungle with him!


The story is only loosely based on the original story. The only similarity really is the hunt through the jungle. This time around, it's not about a hunter bored with big game and moving on to more clever prey, aka humans. This time, we've got two men (Howard and van Eyck, as a British traitor and German officer respectively) hiding out in the jungle to escape their WWII war crimes, who go hunting for Widmark and Greer simply to keep them from escaping and spilling the beans on their hideout. The rest of the story also follows the "hunt" theme, as Greer's character, Katie, hunts down Widmark's character, Mike, for an article in her magazine. He's a world-famous writer who up and quit and disappeared in the middle of his career, no one knows why, and Katie tracks him down to a village in Mexico to get the scoop. Complications naturally ensue when they fall in love and Mike finds out who she really is.

This movie is a lot of fun. Lots of action, violence, great jungle scenery, suspense, and a satisfying climax. Greer and Widmark have good chemistry and I really like them together. She holds her own and even comes up with a couple plans on her own to aid their escape. It's nice to have a strong-willed, independent woman along, not just a damsel in distress. Our two villains work well: van Eyck's character is pretty fanatical about maintaining their secret, Howard's character is exhausted and sick of hiding out in the jungle.