You Can't Run Away from It

Any fool should have known that a remake of "It Happened One Night" would not measure up, but somebody had to prove it. Jack Lemmon and June Allyson don't have anything like the chemistry that Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert had in the original, and Allyson is really miscast as a naive young heiress.

Still, I'm glad that "You Can't Run Away From It" is a musical remake, because the songs are fairly good, even if they're not the best ever written by the team of DePaul and Mercer. The title song is as memorable -- and hummable -- as many an overdone pop standard, and all the others are at least pleasant. So things could have been worse.

June allyson, jack lemmon. This seems to be a musical version of "it happened one night". And every film where the girl's father does not approve of the groom ! In this one, the young couple is already married, so ellen's father kidnaps her and tries to drag her home. Lots of singing. And in this one, the reporter tells the bride he's onto her. But promises he won't spill the beans. Some fun co-stars too. Jim backus and charles bickford. Howard mcnear. Jack albertson. Even a quick bit by henny youngman (the first bus driver). It's okay. Some over the top acting, and the songs are a big waste of time. Were they short on script?? Directed by dick powell....one of the seven that he directed! And he was married to the star here, june allyson. Of course powell died so young at 58. He sure acted in some great films. This one is okay. Would have been better with less singer and a stronger script. They had all these great comedians, but didn't give them much to do!

Evidently someone decided that since they had Technicolor available they could remake It Happened One Night. June Allyson, who was 39 when it was made, is dreadfully miscast as a rich brat who runs away from her father. Jack Lemmon tries his best to make it work, but even he must have cringed when singing the lame musical sequences. The black and white of the original mirrored the gloomy darkness of the Great Depression, and the rich brat's handing the last of their money to a hungry woman was a big turning point of the whole movie; none of that here. When will Hollywood producers learn that you can't remake perfection?

This was one of Jack Lemmon's first films. He is cast in the role of Peter Warren, a free-lance journalist who takes on the challenge of escorting spoiled rich girl Ellie Andrews (played by June Allyson) back to her Father (Charles Bickford) and husband. Peter and Ellie didn't plan on falling in love during their bus trip, but it happened ... just as in "It Happened One Night" starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. This re-make is remarkably faithful to the original in plot and content. I would classify it as a charming, very tame movie worth the 80 minutes or so to watch it.

Jack Lemmon, a new leading man in Hollywood in the 1950s and a younger June Allyson, straight from the M.G.M. Galaxy of musical stars made this a tuneful technicolour re-make of "It Happened One Night," for Columbia Pictures, ably assisted by Stubby Kaye, who never fails with a song; and all this under the direction of Dick Powell, who was married to June Allyson. There have been many post-war musicals released on Video and DVD and Columbia would do well to add this one to their DVD collection. It would be a fitting tribute to the multi-talented Jack Lemmon and Dick Powell who, himself, who was a song and dance man of the 1930s.