Hubbry Logo
search
logo

Run for the Sun

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Run for the Sun

Run for the Sun is a 1956 American Technicolor thriller adventure film released by United Artists, the third film to officially be based on Richard Connell's classic 1924 suspense story, "The Most Dangerous Game", after both RKO's The Most Dangerous Game (1932), and their remake, A Game of Death (1945). This version stars Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard, and Jane Greer, and was directed by Ray Boulting from a script written by Boulting and Dudley Nichols. Connell was credited for his short story.

In this loose adaptation, the expatriate Russian general of the original story is transformed into a British traitor hiding in the Mexican jungle with a fellow Nazi war criminal played by Peter van Eyck. Their prey are Widmark, portraying a Hemingway-like but reclusive novelist, and Greer, playing a magazine journalist who has tracked down the novelist's whereabouts. In this version, the Nazis are hunting them not for sport, but to prevent them revealing their whereabouts.

While working for Sight magazine, journalist Katie Connors goes to San Marcos, a remote Mexican fishing village. She seeks novelist and adventurer Mike Latimer, who has abandoned writing "at the peak of his fame" and dropped from sight. He is in the village, indulging in drinking, fishing, hunting, and flying his aircraft. Katie contrives to meet Latimer, who is smitten. Over the next days, Katie starts falling in love with him but conceals the reason she is there.

After Latimer explains that his wife was the muse behind his literary success, and that he quit writing because she left him to be with his best friend, Katie decides to return to New York City. Latimer offers to fly her to Mexico City and asks Katie to write down her address to keep in touch. During the flight, the magnetized notebook in Katie's purse affects the aircraft's magnetic compass, and they find themselves lost over jungle. The aircraft runs out of fuel and Latimer crash-lands in a clearing. Knocked unconscious, he wakes up to find himself in a bed in the main house of a hacienda.

Katie introduces him to their rescuers, the Englishman Browne and the Dutch archaeologist Dr. Van Anders, who live on the estate with Jan, another European. When asked about a rifle bullet that Latimer carries, he says that it is a souvenir and good luck charm from the D-Day invasion, a time when his courage failed him.

Browne, a big game hunter, claims that he has no contact with the outside world. He keeps savage dogs to prowl the estate and control the local populace. When Latimer goes to examine the condition of his aircraft, it has disappeared. Later, a newscast on the radio announcing their disappearance reveals Katie's identity and original purpose. Katie tries to persuade an offended Latimer that she no longer intends to write the story but he rebuffs her.

That night, Latimer finds a storeroom containing military gear with Nazi markings, items from his missing aircraft supposedly stolen by the local natives, and hunting rifles. The dogs' barking awakens Browne and Van Anders. Latimer overhears them talking in German and tells Katie what he found. He says that they need to work together to escape. They discover that Browne has been concealing from them his own "flyable" aircraft.

Latimer eventually recognizes Browne's voice; the latter turns out to be an infamous turncoat who during the war broadcast Nazi propaganda from Berlin to Britain after having married a German woman. Browne admits the truth and adds that his wife was Van Anders' sister, killed in a British air raid. Van Anders is Colonel Von Andre, a German war criminal who massacred an entire village and intends to kill Latimer and Katie. The two try to steal the aircraft, but when Jan shoots at them, they flee into the jungle.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.