Running Target

Arthur Franz seemed to like a variety of roles, and tried to make each of his characters into something larger than the character should naturally be.

That seems to be the case here, as he plays the professional lawman, the sheriff, leader of a posse after four escaped convicts, all of whom are very dangerous.

This is a bizarre script, and not really believable, as the chief characters are all very one dimensional. The sheriff, even if he's an elected official, is way too complacent and passive towards men who are proved to be dangerous. The woman is a packaged feisty Hollywood cliché who gets soft only when it's a Hollywood scenario. The antagonist sharp shooter is so unstable that one can't imagine him being allowed in the posse.

That said, it is watchable, and there are a few good bits. The most telling bit is when a bank robber brags that he never had to shoot anyone, in a jibe against the sharp shooter.

The character of the sheriff is ridiculous, and it's hard to say more without spoilers. It's just a silly script. At first we get the feeling that they're all basket cases escaped from an asylum, except the two minor members of the posse seem fairly normal.

The sentiments echoed by the sheriff have a passiveness that isn't bad, but just doesn't ring true of a lawman, and also are out of place in the situation.

Do yourself a favor and read the short story by Steve Frazee this flick was based on: My Brother Down There. I stumbled across it and was really impressed, which is why I searched out this movie. Frankly, the movie doesn't capture the magic of the story but it does provide an added dimension that is interesting. There is no female character in the story so I was skeptical right off. Turns out, it doesn't hurt the overall flick. So, if you're disappointed in the flick don't discount the short story.

*****SPOILERS***** The film starts with an escaped convict gunned down on an open field by a sheriffs posse hot on his tail. It turns out that he was one of four escaped convicts from a local prison and with the others not that far ahead the posse of four men and one woman goes up the treacherous Rockies to capture them.

Right from the start there seems to be a deep resentment against the sharpshooter Jaynes, Richard Reeves, by everyone in the posse led by sheriff Scott, Arthur Franz, for the only reason that I can gather is that Jaynes is good at his job: shooting escaped convicts running away from the law and in many cases being armed and dangerous. The posse that Scott has with him includes a young woman ,Smitty, Doris Dowing. Smitty reasons for being there, besides knowing the area like the back of her hand, is that the leader and most dangerous of the escaped convicts Kaygo, Myron Healey, who's a convicted cop-killer once robbed her gas station and even worse stole her prized rifle.

As the last two out of three convicts are captured by the determined sheriffs posse Kaygo is tracked down into a valley. To the shock of sheriff Scott, who was starting to get very serious with Smitty in the romance department, he sees Smitty wearing a dress, which she secretly took with her, and frolicking with Kaygo! As Scott raises his rifle and aims it at Kaygo we hear a shot from the background and Kaygo fall dead on the ground. The shot came from Jaynes rifle that hit and killed Kaygo before Scott could pull the trigger. The movie ends with Scott angry and outraged taking Jaynes's prized and beloved Weatherbee 300 Magnum rifle, the best friend that a man can have, and smashing it to bits against a rock. Was Scott mad at Jaynes for killing Kaygo before he could have killed him himself? As the movie "Running Target" ends there's a very impressive shot, all in one frame, of the dead and blanket covered Kaygo in the foreground with Jayne in the middle sobbing and yelling at Scott, that he has to buy him a new rifle, with sheriff Scott and Smitty walking, in each other arms, up a hill with the majestic Rockie Mountains in the background.

This has to be one of the strangest movies ever made with a lawman leading a posse to capture four escaped convicts, two of them convicted murderers, acting like he was a defense attorney in a criminal trial! Like a defense attorney Scott is always trying to explain away the vicious actions and behavior of the convicts in defending their actions as if they've been mistreated when they were children. It's as if Scott was blaming everyone else, the police the courts the accused family and friends, for the crimes that the escaped convicts committed!

Smitty was understandable but very foolish, doesn't love make fools of us all, of being right in the open and dancing with Kaygo, her secret love, at the end of the movie. All this within sight of everyone in the posse where they can see that she was helping and abetting an escaped murderer from the law! What other conclusion can one come to? With the only exception of the escaped convicts who acted normal, like convicts, Jaynes who's the most believable and honest person in the movie was made to look like, by the filmmakers, a villain and cold blooded killer?

I just don't know what those who made the film "Running Target" were trying to say other then showing just what great liberals they are! It's in them going overboard in showing their ultra liberal prejudices for convicted and escaped convicts they actually approved the crimes that they had committed!

In modern day, a posse of four men and a woman track four escaped convicts through a rugged mountain region.

The flick has one overriding virtue-- the gorgeous mountain scenery of south-central Colorado, beautifully photographed in Technicolor. In fact, the entire runtime never leaves the alpine setting, at least as far as I can tell. For a budget production the location expenses for cast and crew seem a rather daring gamble. Too bad the screenplay fails to approach the exquisite complexity of the setting.

On the whole, I agree with reviewer drystyx: the main characters are strictly one-dimensional, especially Franz's unbelievable sheriff. After all, if his humanitarian values so detest violence, what the heck is he doing as a sheriff where violence is inevitable. Worse, why doesn't the script at least give us a hint as to why he's now something of a pacifist or why he stays on as sheriff. That would have projected both an interesting and more believable character. As things stand he's something of an unfortunate caricature. Ditto for posse member Reeves' gun-loving killer. No complexity there either. When he and Franz clash, which is most of the time, it's more like two simple ideas clashing than two actual people.

Anyway, the movie's a payday for a number of fine villainous types of the day-- Reeves, Anderson, Healey, and Roth. Too bad another fine villain of the day Murvyn Vye's part appears edited down to a single frame (see reviewer efrazee for an explanation).

On the other hand, Dowling's shapely toughie amounts to the most interesting of the posse. At first I thought she was cast just to get a pretty woman for us guys instead of all the ugly men. But that climactic scene, shot from a distance, where she dances in a dress with escaped con Kaygo is inspired, implying as it does a secret motivation beyond our knowing. On the whole, the screenplay seems to be nibbling at something profound but without knowing how to bite. Too bad.

(In passing- in 1948 there was a big breakout from Colorado's state prison in Canon City. I mention this because Running Target was shot close by CC, perhaps inspiring the movie's breakout theme. In fact, a pretty good 1948 film, Canon City, focuses on that same event.)

Whoa, first commenter missed the point of this movie entirely...Jaynes is a killer with a license and a high powered rifle, and volunteers for this manhunt for one reason. To kill. The sheriff has seen him in action many times, doesn't want the dude around, but Jaynes weasels in anyway, thus we have a built in conflict from the start. Three of the escaped convicts aren't murderers, just people seeing a chance at freedom and taking it. The sheriff want's to round them up without bloodshed, he's aware that we all share a common bond regardless of our situations. Yep, we also have the love triangle thing, the jealousy, and many other aspects rolled into this movie, but the main theme is that we all screw up now and then, we're all human, and we shouldn't kill others for the pure enjoyment of pulling the trigger and watching them hit the dirt. That's what Jaynes thrives on, and why the sheriff smashes his high end rifle to bits on a rock toward the end of the movie. Overall theme? There is good and bad in all of us, it just flourishes in different degrees. Trivia: Murvyn Vye couldn't cut the roll of Jaynes, and was fired, replaced by Reeves, who had a very small role in the movie up to that point. He took it and flew with it, did an excellent job portraying the sociopath, the remorseless killer. Of the many movies that were based on Steve Frazee stories, this was one of the best, a sleeper b budget flick that stuck to the script thanks to the insight of budding director/cameraman Jack Couffer, and the killer camera-work of upstart Conrad Hall.