Ray Danton

Colleen Miller

Merry Anders

Willis Bouchey

Harry Jackson

Robert Anderson

Jean Inness

Eddy Waller

John Stephenson

Alexander Campbell

Natalie Masters

Richard H. Cutting

Steve Pendleton

Jack Lomas

George Barrows

Irwin Jay Berniker

Marshall Bradford

Diana Darrin

Bill Erwin

Sam Flint

Ethyl May Halls

Jane Howard

Lola Kendrick

John Pickard

Alex Sharp

Dale Van Sickel

Paul Weber

Albert J. Cohen

Abner Biberman

Albrecht Joseph

George Robinson

Russell A. Gausman

Ray Jeffers

Joseph Gershenson

Gene Levitt

Leslie I. Carey

Robert F. Boyle

Rosemary Odell

Bud Westmore

Alexander Golitzen

Corson Jowett

Clifford Stine

George Lollier

Owen Cameron

Heinz Roemheld

Irving Berns

Gene Anderson

James Welch

Herman Stein

Compton Barrett

Joan St. Oegger

Jim O'Brien

James A. Bean

Sue Kirkpatrick

Frank Skinner

Sherman Clark

Eddie Pyle

Martha Bunch

Robert Pierce

William Harmon

Russ Franks

Betty A. Griffin

Al Hall

Hans J. Salter

Eddie Broussard

Henry Mancini

Drama

Thriller

The Night Runner

Universal International Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

I can't say I am too familiar with Ray Danton, but his dashing good looks and considered performance go some way to keeping this sad and complicated melodrama out of the doldrums. We know from the start that he has been released from a psychiatric hospital (initially against the advice of his doctor who was rather brow-beaten into changing his mind by his board colleagues). It is fairly clear that this man, "Roy", is prone to less lucid moments and his past does limit his opportunities in his new, bustling, environment. "Roy" takes a bus up the coast and along the way alights at a garage where he quite quickly befriends "Hank" (Harry Jackson) and "Amy" (Merry Anders) and decides to take a chalet at a local motel. This is where he encounters "Susan" (Colleen Miller) who's the daughter of the owner "Loren" (Willis Bouchey). There are definite sparks between the young couple, and soon they are all but courting with their friends from the garage. A letter arrives and is read by the father that could change all this - it details the nature of the illness and causes him to lose his temper with his visitor and a rather calculated red mist descends... This is quite a savage indictment of the treatment of mentally ill people who are released, ill-equipped and with no ongoing treatment plan, into a society that is equally ill-equipped to deal with people requiring understanding, tolerance and compassion. At times "Roy" is like a young child exposed to an adult environment where emotions are running high (even when they are not) and Danton plays that character quite effectively. Miller provides for quite a decent foil too and the writing and direction leave much of the man's increasingly overwhelming predicament to our imagination. It is terribly over-scored, far too much heavy and loud music to create a tension that is doing fine by itself, and the pace isn't always the best but otherwise this is a surprisingly thought-provoking low-budget drama that is certainly worth a watch.

English