Tonight's Movie: You Can't Run Away From It (1956) - A Sony Blu-ray Review

YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT (1956), a musical remake of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), was recently released on Blu-ray by Sony.

This was one of a trio of '30s comedies June Allyson remade in the '50s, also including THE OPPOSITE SEX (1956), a remake of THE WOMEN (1939), and MY MAN GODFREY (1957), remaking the 1936 Carole Lombard film.

In YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT Allyson inherits Claudette Colbert's role as Ellie Andrews, an heiress whose father interrupts her brand-new marriage to an oft-married womanizer. Ellie goes on the run to get away from her father and back to her husband, and she's aided by reporter Peter Warne (Jack Lemmon), falling in love with him along the way.

This 95-minute film re-sets the story from the East Coast to California, with the bus ride heading through Arizona towards Texas. The remake also has Ellie having gone through a wedding ceremony rather than engaged; her father is threatening to annul the marriage.

It also reimagines the story as a semi-musical. In addition to the title song, which is sung by the Four Aces, and a new song replacing the original film's "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" on the bus, there are a couple other songs and a dance.

I'm generally a fan of June Allyson, but these remakes, made as she was pushing 40, don't show her in her best light, especially this particular film. In the case of YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT, she's simply a bit too old to pull off a giddy heiress with bad judgement. Colbert was about 30 in the original film, and her more sophisticated portrayal simply "worked"; here, Allyson's somewhat childlike performance is more exasperating than endearing. She also suffers from a poor wardrobe for much of the film.

The musical numbers also don't really help. Despite being written by Johnny Mercer and Gene DePaul of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954), the songs aren't memorable; especially as there's not a great deal of music, I was surprised to learn there was a soundtrack LP!

There's not much reason for Ellie's dance with a scarecrow in a field late in the movie; it does nothing to move the plot forward. Turning the hitchhiking scene into a song and dance number makes a lot more sense, but again, it's simply not memorable. As a fan of both Allyson and musicals, this film frankly came as a disappointment.

Lemmon, on the other hand, fits his role well and is appealing as the ultimately kindhearted reporter who falls in love with Ellie despite her flaws.

I also liked Charles Bickford as Ellie's rough-hewn, wealthy father. By coincidence this was the second Charles Bickford film of the last couple days, after MR. LUCKY (1943). He's the type of actor who makes any film he's in better.

I'm a great admirer of the movie's director - and Allyson's husband - Dick Powell, who directed fine films such as SPLIT SECOND (1953) and THE ENEMY BELOW (1957). YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT has its moments but overall simply doesn't work as well as some of his other films.

The movie was filmed in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Charles Lawton Jr., and a good piece of news is that this Blu-ray print is absolutely gorgeous. You couldn't ask for a better way to watch the movie, and I really appreciated the visual aspect. Blu-ray sound quality is also fine. The outstanding print, along with Lemmon and Bickford, makes the move worth checking out.

There are no extras on the disc, but it does have English-language captions available. As is the case with other Sony discs, the movie begins playing after it's inserted into the player.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Sony for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

Tweet