Run for the Sun

An unusual noir-adventure combo shot in Technicolor and based on Richard Connell’s 1924 story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” one of the most popular English-language short stories ever published, Roy Boulting’s Run for the Sun blends elements of films as varied as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The African Queen (1951), Johnny Allegro (1949), and even Gun Crazy (1950). Richard Widmark plays Mike Latimer, a Hemingway-esque writer who, while hiding out from publicity in rural Mexico, crosses paths with the mysterious Katie Connors (Jane Greer) whom he doesn’t know is a New York journalist following him for a feature story. Things intensify when the two of them crash a private plane in the jungle, where they’re “rescued” by the wealthy Mr. Browne (Trevor Howard) and wake up in his enormous hacienda in the middle of nowhere. Initially welcomed but increasingly suspicious of Browne, whose voice sounds familiar from Latimer’s time in the war, and his partner, Dr. Van Anders (a brunette Peter Van Eyck), Latimer investigates one night and uncovers the dangerous truth of his and Katie’s captivity. Boulting paces the film slowly and steadily, not like a dynamic action film but more like a dramatic thriller, Howard’s villainous propriety serving as the proper restraint on Van Anders’ more visceral ruthlessness.