If you ran The 39 Steps through a photocopier a few times, you might end up with Man on the Run, a British noir from 1949 that yokes a couple together and watches as they fall in love.
Which they do the moment they meet, on the evidence of what’s on the screen.
But… in opening scenes that turn out to be as good as the film will get until it reaches its closing moments, we meet Peter Burdon (Derek Farr), an army deserter passing himself off as Peter Brown and working in a very British pub in a village far away from where anyone will find him.
Until he is discovered, by an old comrade in arms, who immediately recognises Burdon/Brown and puts the squeeze on him for money. Brown does a bunk, heading for London where he hopes to disappear again, this time among the crowds. But, bad luck again, he gets involved in a hold-up during which a policeman is killed.
The police close in on Soho, searching door to door, and Peter, desperate, forces himself on Jean Adams (Joan Hopkins), a widow who will go on to help Peter in the quest to flush out the real killers as the action switchbacks from London to the south coast and back to London.
Lawrence Huntington made a lot of films like this, B movie sideshows in service of a main feature, but he has an eye for a crowd scene, makes Soho atmospheric and is particularly good on pubs, cafés, bars, etc. London street life back then looks much like it does now – polyglot, interesting, a bit frantic, but overall pretty good natured.
Huntington wrote the screenplay as well as directed and is determined to make this an issue movie about the plight of the deserter who, all things considered, might not be as bad as he is often painted. Peter, we’re informed in a key speech, did four years fighting, was at Dunkirk, gave up his business, “everything”, to do his bit in the war and only did a bunk when first his sister and then his mother died and the army wouldn’t extend his compassionate leave.
Peter to one side, deserters do not get a good press in this movie. Side characters repeatedly pinpoint them as the source of whatever unpleasantness is afoot, in dialogue that feels like it’s had to have runway clearance to be flown in. Huntington is eager to have his issue aired.
That apart, Farr and Hopkins are a cute and plausible couple. Hopkins is particularly good as the fragile Jean, who’s had a hard time of it – the war has made a widow of her, toughened her up a bit too.
Edward Chapman plays the inspector on the case. He’d later be the straight man to Norman Wisdom in a string of comedies but here he’s a smart, bantering copper devoted to catching his man.
Star of the future Kenneth Moore plays the blackmailer who recognises Peter early on, and he pulls it off nicely, even though his affable-good-chap nature is trying to break through and he’s fooling no one with his attempts to dirty up his accent (we’re told he was a miner before the war, which is the film’s one big laugh).
If you’re on star patrol, a 20-year-old Laurence Harvey is in it too, as the inspector’s sergeant, and though he isn’t yet the cold, aloof Harvey of the future, Harvey’s Sgt Lawson does contribute significantly to the plot at a couple of decisive moments.
But chance is the main player here, repeatedly stepping in to galvanise the action when it’s ground to a halt, starting with Burdon’s chance encounter with his blackmailer. This is the sort of film where a gun thrown away will soon wash up on the banks of the River Thames. Or a man wanted man with distinctive missing fingers (see also The 39 Steps) will turn up just like that on the next table in a greasy café.
For all that, Huntington and cast keep it going until the tense, brisk finish which will almost compensate for Man on the Run‘s huge reliance on coincidence.
Man on the Run – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
