Running Target (1956)

Was curious about this movie because Richard Reeves had third billing for it. In dozens of movies he had played small parts of bad news enforcers . Usually it takes only one look at him to know he is looking for an excuse to be violent. For the most part in those movies his lines added up to only a minute or two so how would he do in this movie. Maybe having a bigger part would show that he was in above his head and disappoint . Glad to report that Richard Reeves did not miss a beat in a continuation of playing the heavy very well. The bigger part in the movie even calls for one character to analyse him and it seems very accurate . Reeves did have one line that made me laugh out loud ,that was different. If there is another Richard Reeves fan they need to see this movie. As far as the rest of the movie goes the viewer is on their own. Character study may find that Reeves part is the easiest to understand.

6 out of 10 Mainly because it takes a while to really understand the sheriff. At first I thought he was just over acting,(B-Movie) style, but later I started thinking about the various "Hints" he gives regarding the cruelty that men can go through due to the unfair or injustice that our society can inflict upon us all. "I might forget that you are ALSO my brother" says the sheriff, "what do you mean brother" asks Jaynes? What are you talking about" he continues. Could it be that the sheriff knows the last criminal Kaygo a little more then we are told??? On a more positive note: everybody else is somewhat likable including the criminal Struthers who adds some much needed sarcasm which helps us along with this entirely unrealistic scenario, and of course Doris Dowling is sweetheart. Please don't expect too much from this film. Instead sit back and enjoy the Cliché's, the amazing Colorado Mountains, and of course Doris :)

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.

*****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!