Girl on the Run

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.

GIRL ON THE RUN takes place in a carnival, where the nightly burlesque show has been drawing too much attention from the police. This is bad for Bill Martin (Richard Coogan) who's on the lam due to a murder he didn't commit. Bill needs his girlfriend, Janet (Rosemary Pettit) to hide out at the carnival while he looks for the real killer.

Not surprisingly, Janet becomes a dancer in the burlesque show. She quickly trades in her conservative clothes for more interesting attire.

Uh oh!

Someone is snooping around looking for Bill and Janet! Can Bill uncover what's going on before being caught? Will Janet ever get her dance steps right?

With a midway full of fascinating characters, this movie is very enjoyable from start to finish. Of special interest are the hard-edged Lil (Edith King), Blake (Charles Bolender) the diminutive carnival owner, and the lovely tall-drink-of-water known as Gigi (Renee De Milo).

A good example of low-budget filmmaking done right.

P. S.- Watch for a very young Steve(n) McQueen in an uncredited role. He pops up a few times...

Never heard of the directing duo, but they certainly owe a debt to Fritz Lang and Wiemar cinema in general. With an nod to Tod Browning for ambience.

Best viewed as a gestalt. Ignore such conventions as plot, acting and dialogue. The reward is in the esthetic. The evocative cinematography in particular. Cf, the mechanical clown that opens and closes the film. A stunning and memorable image.

A third string "C" Film Noir that actually may be the best of the Carney based Film Noir.

As much as I like Nightmare Alley (1947), this carnival film never leaves the midway much like Todd Browning's Freaks (1932). It's a great capture of the gritty atmosphere of a traveling carnival of tent and plywood, lit by strings of bare light bulbs. Victor Lukens cinematographer, creates a gritty claustrophobic carny setting, with convoluted passageways between tents, the midway, plywood arcades, cramped backstage warrens, along with trailers, and other equipment.

Most of the cast are playing carnies, Charles Bolender shines as the Carney Boss Blake, a cigar chomping little person who runs the show. Bolender deploys great ways of evening the keel whenever he has to deal with other people often ending up higher and looking down on them. Veteran actor Frank Albertson (Mantrap, Nightfall, Physco, Shed No Tears, They Mane Me A Killer, It's A Wonderful Life) plays the local cop Hank on carnival duty. Harry Banister a early TV vet plays the local corrupt politician Reeves.

Veteran TV Western Actor Richard Coogan (Vice Raid) is Bill Martin, a falsely accused of murder reporter who takes refuge at the carnival. Rosemary Pettit (Walk East On Beacon) plays Janet his girl who gives off a Gene Tierney vibe. She is forced to hide out with a chorus of carnival strippers, the de-facto "Girl On The Run" mothered by veteran early TV actress Edith King (Calcutta). Pettit is great as the good girl who has to be a quick study learning how to jiggle along with the rest of the strippers.

Rounding out the rest of the cast John Krollers and other un-credited actors play carnival barkers, you can see a bit of Phil Silvers, or Bud Abbott in the parts, for all I know I wouldn't be surprised if they were real carnival barkers.

A shout out to Renee de Milo (her only credit) where ever she may be, she plays the headliner stripper Gigi. She does a complete dance and is so good at it that I suspect that she was an actual carnival stripper. She does her act without removing her bikini type costume but she's got the moves down that you can easily imagine what she'd display. Check out Carnival Strippers - Early Years (1971-1978) by Susan Meiselas for a reference work.

The film also has an early Steve McQueen as an extra.

The score is carnival music inter-spaced with jazz for the dance routines. This low budget Noir delivers, I go as high as a 6.5-7/10. If it did have A list actors for the two lovers, and say Bud Abbott or Phil Silvers as the barkers it could have been an 8/10.

This film beautifully points up the great difficulty there is in justly evaluating films in peripheral categories which have rather different values and value from mainstream films. All reviewers are unanimous that it is an excellent film and I am not going to disagree with the, It is a first-rate film in a fourth-rate category - the lowly "low budget" "B" film. It is not quite in the class of a film like Ullmer's Detour, which is a masterpiece, but it does magnificently capture the sleazy atmosphere of the equally fourth-rate carnival it portrays. Forget the purely nominal film noir plot. It is really about this grubby and grotesque but actually surprisingly charming little world to which a "straight" man and a "straight" girl on the run have to adapt themselves and come after a fashion to appreciate its values and its value. Like the nominal plot, they are the nomivnal stars. The real performances come fom Chares Olander as the hard-bitten, blackmailing, lecherous - but actually fundamentally decent - dwarf who runs the carnival, Frank Albertson as the baker and Edith Petit splendid as Lil in charge of the dancing girls, themselves only a knife-edge away away from a life of prostitution. The writing is tense and clever and the cinematography by the unknown Victor Lukens is superb. Don't bother to look out for Steve McQueen. If you blink you'll miss him. I must have blinked.

The French phrase in the title means "down there if you find me" (when one wants to get rid of someone, in slightly old-fashioned but delicious slang, one tells them to go and look somewhere else to see if one is there). It was also the title of a long-running radio programme, the last to defend committed investigative journalism in the interested of the underprivileged - those "down tere". And it is precisely that empathy with the world "down there" (see if am not there) that is the great quality of this film. Standing up nobly for the fourth-rate!