John Garfield plays a troubled and confused robber named Nick Robey whose problems are further exasperated as he is unemployed and lives at home with his mother who is not very loving or understanding. So Nick is trying to figure out what to do with his life when he is literally pushed out of his bed and onto the street by his pestering mother and he is greeted by a waiting shark named Al Molin (played by Norman Lloyd best known for his TV role as Dr. Daniel Auschlander in the 1982-88 hospital drama St. Elsewhere) who has talked Nick into a surefire plan of robbing a manufacturing plant of their weekly payroll.The robbery does not go as it was planned but Nick does escape with a briefcase full of $10K cash but he needs a place to hide after shooting a cop while getting away from the robbery. Nick decides to hang out on the beachfront in an indoor public pool where he accidentally collides into a novice and naive young female named Peggy Dobbs played brilliantly by Shelly Winters.As Nick's head is swirling with where to hide and when to make his getaway his paranoia comes to a head and he convinces the naive Peggy Dobbs to allow him just to walk her home. Poor naive Peg agrees to have Nick walk her home and she invites him into her upstairs apartment which Peg shares with her parents and younger brother Tommy. John Garfield lives an isolated existence both physically and more importantly emotionally. When the pressure of the police potentially closing in on him becomes far too much for him to bear Nick misled by his delusional paranoia he makes a decision that he will keep the four (4) Dobbs family members hostage in their upstairs apartment until the heat dies down and he can figure out how and when to make his getaway.John Garfield plays the paranoid plant robber on the run with great emotion and fear. His screen performance portrays a young man who just seems lost and wanting for someone, anyone, to show him some semblance of love and understanding. So Nick reaches out to his mother but even she turns him down. The only one left that Nick believes he can even remotely rely on anymore is this young naive girl Peg who he is holding as a hostage with the rest of her family. Emotions are running at a fervor pace throughout the scared Dobbs family and over the next 48 hours young Peg continues to have empathy for Nick as she realizes he is lost and has no one in his life. The climax of this film is well done and reflects the troubled times of the 1940's and 1950's when film noir and guns went hand in hand with emotion and struggling families.I give the 1951 black and white John Garfield film "He Ran All the Way" a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

I had a similar reaction to this picture that I had with 1955's "The Desperate Hours", which also had a family held hostage at gunpoint. In that one, Bogey did the honors as the hair trigger criminal, but he had a couple of accomplices. John Garfield works alone here as something of a dimwit thug who does the wrong thing at the wrong time too often before getting caught up in his own incompetence. Which makes his remark in my summary line to Peg Dobbs (Shelly Winters) all the more comical. OR, it would make Peg pretty dumb if you extend the argument.But the more apt comparison to the later film is how the hostages were left unattended so often and for so long, thereby allowing them to take advantage and make a break for the police. Which Ma Dobbs (Selena Royle) eventually does, what alternative did she have really? That'll teach Nick Robey (Garfield) to force feed a turkey dinner at gunpoint.You could see how conflicted and out of his element Robey was in that scene when Mrs. Dobbs hurt herself on the sewing machine. He came across as a compassionate guy offering solace and comfort to an injured mother, something that wasn't reciprocated by his own Mom (Gladys George) when Robey was down and out. She treated him like a loser all the way, but then again, he didn't need much help in that department.Well, old timers like myself will get a nostalgic kick out of a couple items presented in the story. Somehow that twelve mile round trip on a boat at the Rainbow Pier looked like a real bargain at twelve cents a ride. But the better one was when Pop Dobbs (Wallace Ford) opened the apartment door for the morning newspaper. If you're under fifty years old, you might be wondering what that quart of milk was doing there.

The picture starts with Nick (this is last movie of John Garfield ) and his colleague Al Molin (Norman Lloyd) stage a payroll holdup . Al is murdered, along with a police officer . Nick hides out in a plunge , and into a locker hides the robbed cash ; later on , he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters) . They go out from a public pool and return to her apartment and then Nick forces her family , father (Wallace Ford , John Ford's brother) , mother (Selena Royle) and child to hide him from the police chase .This enjoyable film contains a relentless manhunt , thrills , suspense , violence and some elements of Noir cinema . Most actors , screenwriters , director were pursued by American government during ominous period of Mccarthismo. Interesting writing credits , written under pseudonyms , by Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler , front Guy Endore ; being based on a novel by Sam Ross . Very good acting by John Garfield as a violent and desperado delinquent . Garfield had a sad as well fruitful life , as he signed a contract with Warner Brothers, who changed his name to John Garfield. Won enormous praise for his role of the cynical Mickey Borden in Four Daughters (1938). Appeared in similar roles throughout his career despite his efforts to play varied parts , being his best film : Body and soul . Active in liberal political and social causes, he found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife, he succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend at 39. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino.Atmosheric and appropriate cinematography in black and white by James Wong Howe who along with John Alton and Nicolas Musuraka are the main cameramen of Noir genre . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by the classic Franz Waxman . The motion picture was well directed by John Berry . Director John Berry and co-scripter Hugo Butler's names were removed from the credits for a time after release, due to the blacklisting of supposed Communist sympathizers at the time. Assistant director Emmett Emerson is thus often credited as the film's director . Berry Was named as a member of the Communist Party by Hollywood 10 member Edward Dmytryk in Dmytryk's 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, when the blacklisted director "named names" to revive his Hollywood career and effect a return from exile in Europe. After Dymytrk's testimony, the formerly disgraced director, who had served a prison term for defying HUAC in 1947, was allowed to resume his Hollywood career and direct movies in America, but Berry was blacklisted and went into exile in France. Ironically, Berry had directed the documentary The Hollywood Ten . Berry directed interesting films , such as 1955 Headlines of Destruction , 1949 Tension 1949 , 1948 Casbah ,1946 Cross My Heart and 1946 From This Day Forward , among others .

John Garfield's character in this movie makes his character in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE look like Mr. Easy Going. He's tight as a drum from the opening scene with his nasty mother, through the holdup (with snaky Norman Lloyd as his partner), his flight, and the long scenes with Shelley Winters' family.Winters is appealing in her role as the plain girl who can't find a man. She falls for the dangerous and casually violent Garfield; but is she really in love with him or trying to assist in his capture? That's where the tension lies in this short thriller. Dalton Trumbo (uncredited as screenwriter) creates good dialog for all the cast members, and pulls together an exciting final 5 minutes with a few plot twists and a gut-wrenching ironic final shot. Catch it if you can, if you're a noir fan.