The Loneliest Runner

stomer Reviews 4.8 out of 5 stars (4) 4.8 out of 5 stars 5 star 3 4 star 1

I saw this TV movie when it first aired back in 1976. Lance Kerwin, in some really good acting, plays early teen John Curtis who has a bed wetting problem. The movie lures you in with sympathy for the boy and it is very effective. Michael Landon plays John Curtis as an adult, an ace runner, who we see breaking through the finish line at the start of the film . While pondering the question of his track abilities during an interview, he stares into a wall clock that triggers a childhood flashback. The story unfolds as we witness young John Curtis rising early and scampering to gather his bedsheets for washing. Johns father(Brian Keith)who internally wants to help his son, lives in a household where he appears to be verbally dominated by his wife. As a father with a secret, he tries with heavy machismo to reach and cure his son. At the age of 12 or 13, John's fear of being ridiculed for bed-wetting by his parents and friends is monumental, and understandably so. He desperately tries though shear will and lack of sleep to end or hide his condition to please his parents. You really feel his pain.

This may all sound like a boring or outdated topic, but stay with it to see a family dynamic exposed and some great acting as well by Brian Keith. John obviously has a condition that can't be helped. You could almost apply any embarrassing ailment, or even an addiction to the story and get a good message from it. His mother is downright mean and determined to embarrass her son by hanging his urine stained bed sheets out the window for all his friends and neighbors to see. The film takes place in the 50s so you can somewhat understand the naivete'. To avoid ridicule John bolts home from school everyday to take the sheets in before they can be seen. Doing this daily, he develops great speed and is recognized by the school track coach as a standout. A wonderful and eventually forceful showing of compassion by dad makes it all worthwhile. As we return to the adult John Curtis at the films end, he makes a bittersweet and humbling statement (in true Landon fashion). The Loneliest Runner is a surprisingly interesting and entertaining movie. If your in the mood to stir up emotions, this well done and probably forgotten seventies TV movie will do it. Watching it as a parent by yourself could be a learning experience. The Loneliest Runner deserves a quality DVD release.

There's no way I would have ever come across this movie but for belonging to a film club that views movies dealing with the theme of running. Landon has admitted that this poignant bed wetting story was autobiographical; frankly I doubt the squeamish subject matter would have ever been broached (let alone made into a feature length TV movie) without the backing of someone as powerful in television as Landon was in the 70s. Obviously the pain of the experience stayed with Landon because there are strong psychological conflicts and images at work here that seem likely to have come from real life, including the stained bedsheets hanging out the window and the pained, carefully modulated performance by Brian Keith as the father who can't quite stand up to his castrating and selfish wife or his own private demons.

Is it credible and well acted? Definitely. Does Landon demonstrate startling balls and emotion in his blazingly frank depiction of the material? Unquestionably. Is this studiously observed treatise on the ultimate in childhood embarrassment and ridicule going to be uncomfortable and maybe even a bit of a bummer for you? Probably.

The mother and ostensible villain of the piece is overly caricatured and some of the attitudes of the 1940s are oversimplified but still, I have to admit I was moved by the story. The ending packs power and Landon the writer provides Landon the actor (looking very Bruce Jenner-like in his Olympics clothing) with a wonderful line when Rafer Johnson asks him how he got into running and Landon responds by saying he owes it to his parents. That line cuts in several directions at once. Good movie for fans of Landon or Keith, who both turn in excellent work and whose lives were both ironically cut short years later.

Interesting. Unique. Touching. Inspiring. Most memorable moments: when the mother expects a smell in the bathroom as the son hides out, when the son is amazed that lifting weights makes him bigger, and how the son grows up overnight.

When I saw this film I was both horrified and encouraged. I was horrified because, at the time, I was a teen bed wetter myself and sitting with the family watching this made me feel very embarrassed. No one said anything to me about it, but I was very self-conscious and uncomfortable. At the same time, I was very encouraged that, finally, I knew that I wasn't the only teen with that problem. My folks weren't as negative to me about my bed wetting as the mother depicted in the film, but they made me feel that I was an embarrassment to them as it was the "big family secret" that was always referred to as "Paul's problem." It took many years before I was able to build up a decent level of self-esteem, and this film helped me along the way. I hope parents today are more aware of how teen bed wetting can affect a kid's entire life; perhaps we need more films like this.

then there's all likelihood that you remember seeing this movie as a kid. i was seven when i saw it on TV and it burned permanent images in my head of the sheet hanging outside of the windows and the humiliation the kid endured. through my life i've referred to it only to find that a large majority of people my age were also scarred by this movie, remember the same images and respond the same way when it's brought up: with a wide-eyed sense of excitement and horror.

a true generational flick.

only recently when one peer said, "hey, 'james at 15' played the kid." was i able to track down the name of it.

yay for the internet!