You Have to Run Fast

Doctor Craig Hill becomes a witness in a mob rub-out. To protect himself, he shaves off his mustache, ceases to wear glasses and becomes a gun store clerk in a town that lives by the hunting season. On the first day of the season, the mob boss who can finger Hill comes to town.

It's directed by Edward L. Cahn, so the pacing is pretty good, but it's produced by Robert Kent, so you know production values are going to be very poor. My expectations in this matter were met, particularly with the intrusive and annoying score by Richard Lasalle. Hill is nasal and wooden. It's no wonder he couldn't sustain a Hollywood career, but his good looks kept him busy in European productions for a third of a century. He died in 2014 at the age of 88.

(1961) You Have To Run Fast SUSPENSE THRILLER/ CRIME DRAMA

Two gangsters of 'Big Jim' Craven (Grant Richards) and Jay Rocco (Ric Marlow) stop by at a doctor's clinic to drop off a battered man only to have Dr. Roger Condon (Craig Hill) come to the door, and requesting Jay Craven's right hand man to fill out some forms. And by the time he attends to the battered victim, he dies, and he tries to receive some more information regarding the deceased victim. But by the time that happened, the two men had already left, with him calling authorities and answering questions for them. Police Lt. Dan Carbo (Jack Mann) then made the doctor come to the police station to look at some photos so that he will be able to identify the two men who dropped the deceased off with him. By the time the doctor is able to identify the two men, the sgt then informs him they were gangsters, and that although they manage to catch one of them, he then told the doctor Big Jim Craven managed to escape and is in hiding. The Sgt then offers the doctor police protection, except that it was futile when the one officer assigned to him was shot and killed. Forcing the doctor to lose confidence with them and go about on his own and go into hiding. The movie then jumps a few years later introducing Dr. Condon's new life to which he changed his entire look by removing his eye glasses and just wears contact lenses with a identity under the name Frank Harlow this time, and working at a sports goods store from the small town known for it's hunting and fishing. Hanging around there he is also acquainted with the father of the inn he is staying at, he calls him colonel who lives with h his daughter, Laurie Maitland (Elaine Edwards) who becomes his love interest. Meanwhile, Craven also changed his name as well to Mr. Booth sending two goons to scope the country to track where the doctor had gone to.

Anyone who watches this movie should be able to see the budget constraints, and the low production values despite the theme done many times. But at the end of it all, it does have a happy ending despite the whole experience is tame.

Quite enjoyable yarn about the doctor who had to run and change his identity in order to save himself from a murderous criminal and his cohorts. In a new town after a year has passed, he has a new profession, new acquaintances and a new love interest. Criminals eventually catch upon him and he has to decide whether to run or to stand and fight. Hunting and medical skills come handy, once the decision is made. Story is predictable and on a simpler side, and directing is worthy a 'B' production certificate. A brownie points for parts of the dialogue and positive representation of a handicapped person. Worthy of watching on a Sunday afternoon (seen on Amazon Prime). 6/10

A doctor gets into an awful mess when he accepts a patient from two strangers. The patient has been beaten to death, the strangers just pull off without paying, the doctor calls the police, the police has a murder case, they ask him to identify the two strangers from the police records, he does so, and they are professional killers. Their big boss is bound to send hired killers all over the country to hunt for the doctor, who has to find another life, which he does up in the mountains at a hunters' lodge. There he gets mixed up with an old veteran colonel and his lovely daughter, and they fall in love. Meanwhile the gangsters have picked up his scent, and things get hot up in the mountains at the approaching settlement. Yes, there are some shootings also, but not everyone gets killed. It's a good thriller about the awful dilemma of a doctor, who just has to cure patients whoever they are and in whatever circumstances. The doctor can't refuse. Doctor Mudd got into a similar predicament when he helped the murderer of Abraham Lincoln, without knowing anything. This could happen to any doctor. Never accept patients from strangers.

Director Edward L Cahn walked the line of mediocrity and YOU HAVE TO RUN FAST only provides incidental confirmation of that assertion: shoddy direction, childish script, amateurish acting by the leads Craig Hill and Elaine Edwards (who was she? I do not recall seeing her name on any film before!), paralytic retired US Army colonel Willis Bouchey who proves his lethal sniping from the comfort of his lounge's window sill after just turning over his handgun to the outlaws a minute earlier, rather rotund-bellied and inadvertently comic top villain Grant Richards as "Big Jim" Craven who has been searching for goody two shoes doctor Craig Hill all over the USA and gets to find him at Buckhorn Motel in tiny backwater town Summit City that does not even have a full-time medical doctor...

Poor Craig Hill can see the writing on the wall when even a local cop recognizes Craven but allows himself to be overpowered and shot through his chest before being placed against a tree. Amazingly, while drowning in his own blood, that superhuman cop manages to walk some distance to a makeshift operating table. Wonders never cease...

At least the title is spot on: you have to run fast... before you drown in all the senseless BS in this movie! An extremely generous 5/10 for the lovely 1950s cars on show.