THE OTHER/FORGOTTEN WESTERNS OF JAMES CAGNEY

Release Year: 1955

Another "hanging without a trial" situation but, at first, Cagney and his brand new young partner, John Derek, provide the necks for the posse's rope: mistaken as train robbers but for hardly five minutes until Cagney demands proof, which there's none...

RunForCoverScore: **1/2

While Cagney's more natural and at-home than his other Westerns before and after, there's an overdose of melodrama...

That includes minor flaws like Derek's corny name, Davey, repeated like a scratched record: The kid had been shot by the posse and rendered crippled with an eternal limp, making the handsome would-be co-leading man more of an idiot man-child to Cagney, who's hired as Sheriff by the same town that nearly executed him and with Deputy Davey in tow...

There's a handing off of sporadic bouts against ambiguous drifter Ernest Borgnine and local redneck Jack Lambert to heartfelt dialogue between Cagney and townswoman Viveca Lindfors, a good actress in an extremely contrived role — they fall in love so quick the romance doesn't mean anything, slowing down the overall pace that never quite allows itself to go all-out till the 11th hour, when it's too late. Perhaps intentionally since RUN FOR COVER remains as subtle and level-headed as our patient, good-natured and, alas, somewhat dull hero.