YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM IT

US, 1956, 96 minutes, Colour.
June Allyson, Jack Lemmon, Charles Bickford, Jim Backus, Stubby Kaye, Allan Joslyn.
Directed by Dick Powell.

You Can't Run Away From It is a mid-'50s remake of Frank Capra's famous and Oscar-winning comedy, It Happened One Night (Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert starring and also gaining Oscars). This time the film is geared as a vehicle for June Allyson by her husband and director Dick Powell. June Allyson gives a lively performance and is matched by Jack Lemmon in his early days of film comedy. There is a strong supporting cast including Charles Bickford and Stubby Kaye. The film is also in Cinemascope and colour. There are songs by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul.

The film follows the original screenplay by Robert Riskin and has been adapted with the help of Claude Binyon, director of a number of pleasant comedies of the '50s: Mother Didn't Tell Me, Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick etc. For those who have not seen the original, this musical comedy would be a pleasant and slight piece of Americana. It takes the usual theme of the wealthy and spoilt heiress, her cranky beef-millionaire father, his abducting her to prevent her marrying an unscrupulous Latin husband. The film is also a road movie with the heroine on the road with a reporter accompanying her across Texas - whom she thinks wants her for the news and publicity, but who really loves her. Needless to say, the film has a happy ending. In stead of the brash screwball comedy pace and jokes of the '30s, the film has the glossy musical comedy affluence of the '50s. Critics generally compared it unfavourably to the original. However, it provides an interesting companion-piece and indicates the change of entertainment styles from the '30s to the '50s.