NO PLACE TO RUN

US, 1972, 90 minutes, Colour.
Herschel Bernardi, Stephanie Powers, Larry Hagman, Neville Brand, Tom Bosley, Scott Jacoby, Kaye Medford, Robert Donner.
Directed by Delbert Mann.

No Place to Run is an early television movie. It is a sad and sentimental film, a focus on a young boy, played by Scott Jacoby, who has been adopted. However, his parents are killed. He is to return to state custody. However, his grandfather, played by Herschel Bernardi, loves the boy and together they decide to run away to Canada.

Some commentators made the parallel with the experience of the Vietnam war going on at the same time – especially in people trying to escape the impositions of the government by going to Canada.

The film was directed by Delbert Mann, Oscar winner for Marty and director of a number of fine films in the 50s and 60s like Separate Tables. From the 1970s he directed many telemovies.

1. Did the title adequately sum up the film? Did the title song add anything to the feeling and mood of the film? Its use later in the film?

2. The film was made for T.V. Was this evident? When? Did it destroy any of the impact of the film? Was the T.V. style evident in the use of the close-ups etc.?

3. Did the film explore a good human problem? Did it merely present it or did try to understand the problem in some depth?

4. How was Hyam the central character? Was he an engaging personality? Our first meeting him at the doctors? How stubborn was he? Should he have been? What values did he stand for in his life? Was he out of date? His store and its lack of business? His refusal to sell out to the developers? His attitude towards progress? His thinking that workers were robots? The hazard of his health and his stubbornness? His wanting to keep working? His despising the old men playing checkers? His capacity for love? His regard for Doug? His decisions what difficulties arose- did he handle the situations' well? Sensibly? His prompt selling of the shop? His buying of the cart Would the audience respond very sympathetically to him? Why?

4. What kind of boy was Doug- was he worth Hyam's love and care? What values did he stand for? How was their relationship well established - in the early part of the film - in the shop and Hyam's return? Doug's care for the shop? Their having evenings together? Their going for walks? Going to the film? Should Doug have kept the letters to himself? Why did he? Why did he think it best to move away? What was his response to Hyam's decision to go to Canada with him? What was the relationship between the two? How strong was it?

5. How did the relationship between the two grow during their flight to Canada? Was the flight plausible in itself or was merely a gesture they were making?

6. The role of J. Fox in the film? common sense? His stern attitude towards Miss Howard and his criticism of her? And yet his realising that Hyam was not able to look after the boy?


7. Miss Howard: was she too severe in the early scenes? Did she do her job well? Why did she change? How was she caught by the red tape of the system?

8. Remus’s contribution to the film? Representing the modern world – wrecker and builder? His understanding of Hyam?

9. Sam and his relationship to Hyam? Hyam’s dependence on him? His approach to sentiment and feeling? To the letter of the law?

10. How did the film come to its climax, the incidents during the flight, the car, the police, the meal, the side roads? How desperate was the final trying to jump the train?

11. Was Hyam’s adopting Doug a solution? Should he have been allowed to adopt Doug earlier? What insight into the adoption process?

12. How did this film strike a balance between sentimentality and unfeeling documentation?