Girl on the Run (1953)

GIRL ON THE RUN is an indie crime thriller from 1953, set in and around a burlesque theatre full of the usual dancing girls wearing very little. The surprise here is that this is quite good for an independent film, with a snapping pacing and brief running time that means as a film it never outstays its welcome. Once racy, today tame, this features a murder followed by a police investigation of sorts. It's that simple, but there are some atmospheric moments, and you get a real sense of the time and setting. Plus, you can try to spot Steve McQueen, appearing as an extra at the outset of his career.

Carny noir concerns 1950's vice rackets. The basic mystery is "Who killed George" but there are a lot of noir type character relationships intertwined in the story. It is tough and cheap, fitting to the 1950's carny world.Rosemary Petit is svelte and effective and appears to be a legit b-film actress. On the opposite end of the film babe spectrum is French tart Renee De Milo who believe me still delivers plenty of va-voom to the screen after all these years. While by no means great, "Girl on the Run" is a hard boiled film that held my attention. Noir enthusiasts will need this in their collection.Extras on the Alpha DVD include a goofy trailer for "The Girl in Gold Boots" which extols that "for Buzz, the answer was a gun!" and also some other cheesy stuff.

You've heard of "The Young and the Restless" and its follow-up, "The Bold and the Beautiful". There have been movies like "The Proud and the Profaine" and "Rich, Young and Pretty". Now meet the carny girls of this second rate traveling tent show. They could be called "The Fat and the Frisky". These porky hoochy-cooch dancers look like they haven't seen a vegetable in years, living off of cotton candy and fried dough with cinnamon on top. So when "Girl on the Run" (Rosemary Pettit) joins their line-up while hiding from the cops, it is obvious just from her petite figure that she isn't one of them. Even headliner Gigi (Renee De Milo) seems to have forgotten that dancing requires exercise. But I digress.That was my first of many laughs at this Z- programmer, certainly not worthy of any big city release, and possibly too trashy for the sticks. Pettit and her reporter boyfriend (Richard Coogan) are on the run from the police after he has been wrongfully accused of murdering his boss. A mysterious man named Clay Reeves (Harry Bannister) is stalking them, and his motives seem definitely suspicious. The fun starts in the carny girls trailer when Pettit is rescued by the blowzy Edith King who gets some really fascinating film noir lines, telling someone aiding her after being shot, "I was used as target practice", and later on, "I made friends with a bullet". She is definitely the scene-stealer in this movie, sort of a 50's Marie Dressler with a bit of Thelma Ritter thrown in. The scenes between her and "little person" boss Charles Bolender (who actually seems six feet tall while running the carny) are truly touching.For a film with a $1.95 budget, it really is inventive in many aspects, and while it isn't up there with the legendary film noirs, it is almost equivalent to low-budget classics like "Detour" and "Decoy" which have become cult classics. There are certainly many moments that are extremely laughable, but in retrospect, I have to say I thoroughly had a good time watching it. I just can't raise its rating that I gave based on the fact that it is low-budget trash, more pulp novel than film noir, and seems to have been inspired by pulp noir book covers.

One of several worthy discoveries in Something Weird Video's "Weird Noir" set, and the most formally interesting of the bunch. "Girl on the Run" obeys the classical unities of action (one plot, which is all you have time for in 64 minutes), time (it all takes place in one evening), and place (it is set entirely inside a traveling carnival's grounds). The film is spatially fascinating: you really get a sense of how a carnival can pack a lot of activities into a smallish area, and how, out of direct sight of the public, the "inner world" of the carnival company can go on vigorously despite there being no apparent physical room for it. The sound design is dense and realistic and lends a high degree of verisimilitude to the film's texture. "Girl on the Run" is bookended by an excellent night-time opening shot of the carnival and its Ferris wheel from a medium distance, very atmospheric, and a great closing shot of a laughing mechanical clown. Some thought went into the presentation here.On the debit side, the acting is fairly ordinary, although protagonist Richard Coogan - television's first Captain Video - is certainly a handsome, energetic chap. The storyline is nothing special either. And yet the very standardness of these elements throws the more innovative aspects of the movie into higher relief, and the overall result is highly watchable.I encourage any film history student or scholar looking for an offbeat candidate for detailed analysis to take a look at this movie; I think you might see rich possibilities in it.