He Ran All The Way (1951)

A small time thug and loser (John Garfield) and his pal (Norman Lloyd) rob a payroll but things go wrong and a policeman is killed and Lloyd is wounded. On the run, Garfield picks up a shy wallflower (Shelley Winters) at a public swimming pool and then proceeds to hold her family hostage and terrorize them. This was Garfield's last film so it's a pity he isn't better. In fact, his performance is pretty bad. Garfield's snarling cop killer is so nasty and creepy that it's not believable that, however naive, a plain Jane like Winters would invite him into her home, much less actually fall in love with him. Amazingly, Garfield, director John Berry and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo were all under investigation by the House Of Un American Activities and, in fact, when the film was released Berry's and Trumbo's names were removed from the credits. Still, it's all pretty intense at an economical 77 minutes with fine supporting work from Wallace Ford and Selena Royle as Winters' parents and Gladys George as Garfield's alcoholic mother. The robust score is by Franz Waxman and the sharp B&W cinematography by the great James Wong Howe.