ACTOR JOHN GARFIELD'S FINAL STRIDE FOR 'HE RAN ALL THE WAY'

John Garfield in HE RAN ALL THE WAY Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2

The death of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE star John Garfield, especially for rabid fans of Film Noir, is that of a martyr; if ever there was a martyr caused by the Hollywood Blacklist, it's Garfield...

And fpr those who rely on fiction over fact, happening upon a "classic old movie" without knowing a backstory on the actor on screen, sadly enough, John – though still tough and sturdily handsome – looked that of a man nearly finished...

Poster from HE RAN ALL THE WAY

And his desperate HE RAN ALL THE WAY criminal has only one buddy left – who ain't around for long: Like many slowburn b-cime melodramas, RAN begins in full stride and then progressively mellows. On the run for killing a cop – dogging his heels right after a heist gone extremely wrong – Garfield's Nick Robey meets the ingenue, a different sort of love interest: and neither seem that interested at all...

Or at least not really since what ends up a one man DESPERATE HOURS is tight and suspenseful. Perhaps because the meager budget couldn't allow any distractions, the story goes in a neat straight line. And Shelly Winters as Peggy looks a bit too old to be living at home – making it a real surprise for our man who seems more outright bitter than ambiguous, lethal than vulnerable, and he rarely shows a reposeful side to completely fit the Noir template, as far as the "Leading Guilt-Ridden Crook" is concerned...

Wallace Ford, Selena Royle, Shelley Winters & John Garfield in He Ran All The Way

Beyond the troubles of being wanted on the street, with the law moving in on every corner outside, it's how Robey settles into a normal, standard life that winds up a hybrid of edgy and eerie. He has more to learn from the preachy (and somewhat irritating) blue collar father than our stock starlet – most roles by Winters couldn't be "played by anyone" but not in this case: Then again, the same might be said of Garfield's somewhat average turn...

And yet, bringing real life into his character, and keeping in mind this was written by Dalton Trumbo, the epitome of Blacklisted screenwriters, a shattered past and doomed future that, having aged his existence, is like witnessing a typical crook fighting against conventional normality – so by his expressions and not words or actions, we realize the title could have been HE'D BEEN THERE AND BACK ALREADY, making this a grungy little Swan Song befitting an actor who was (and still is) a true Film Noir and overall Hollywood legend.

John Garfield in HE RAN ALL THE WAY