The Running Man

The story of someone who fakes his or her own death to collect insurance is not new, and a similar plot was used in the Tony Perkins, Sophia Loren picture FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT a year or so before this. The difference between the two movies was the director. This one had Sir Carol Reed; the earlier film was handled by Anatole Litvak, no slouch but not in Reed's class. Shot in Spain, with interiors at Ardmore Studios in Ireland, THE RUNNING MAN tells the tale of Harvey, the owner-operator of a small air-transport company. He's enraged when he can't collect on a glider crash because he missed renewing the policy by one day. He then does what so many people would lik...