User reviews

You Can't Run Away From It is a re-make of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night. That being said, one knows already what to expect. Film makers, no matter how hard they try, generally fail at reproducing classic films. This is no exception, not to say that this movie isn't good, but it cannot hold a candle to the original.

June Allyson stars as Ellie Andrews, a wealthy society dame rebelling against her father's strict command. She has eloped with a wealthy gigolo type, but has been kidnapped away from him by her family in hopes of being granted an annulment. Before the papers can be signed, Ellie runs away again, this time on a bus to find her new husband. On the way she meets Peter Warne (Jack Lemmon), a news reporter out for a good story. He agrees to help Ellie in exchange for the exclusive story, but the two develop a relationship while on the road.

Allyson is not quite elegant enough to pass as a member of the elite upper class and Lemmon lacks the charm of Clark Gable, so each fall short in their parts. However, it is always nice to see them, whether they excel or not.

All of the classic moments are here from the group song in the bus, the search for raw carrots, the hitch hiking scene, and the "walls of Jericho" bit. These inclusions should have been done like a proud tribute to the original, but they're played like they've never been done before, and fall very flat. It's like they found a stunning old gown in a trunk thats become threadbare and moth eaten over time and tried to pass it off as new. Who were they kidding? Part of the problem is comparing this version to the original film. If one has never seen It Happened One Night, this movie might fare better. It has its moments, and once they get going, the musical numbers aren't all that bad. The color is quite striking too. This version is perfect for younger audiences who refuse to watch black and white, but adults will prefer the wit of the original.

It it worth noting that the TCM print is a pan-and-scan version, so we lose some of the original splendor. Shame on you TCM for denouncing pan-and-scan and then showing it!

For fans of "It Happened One Night," it's fun to see how they remade it in the 50's, in Technicolor, and as a quasi-musical.

The young Jack Lemmon is a delight to see, and it would have been stupid to try to follow Clark Gable's act--no one could.

The oddball casting has June Allyson playing the Claudette Colbert role, but since June was producer/director Dick Powell's wife, it's comprehensible. June had a lot of appeal in many of her roles, but sexy she wasn't; she was more the girl next door, or the long-suffering, proper wife. Here, playing a post-debutante, June was, in real life, pushing 40. The supposedly sexy scenes had that sanitized 50's feel to them, and the chemistry between the two stars was minimal.

But June makes the movie in the scene where they sleep in a field, as she sings & dances to a scarecrow, with moves that would have done Donald O'Connor proud. Such energy & wit, paired with her funny, froggy voice, are a delight. Who knew she had all this talent hidden away?

There's a lot to enjoy, even though, like nearly all remakes, it falls a bit short.

Pale imitation of It Happened One Night fails to capture the magic of the original, a fools errand to attempt in the first place, but is pleasant enough.

One of the problems is that Jack Lemmon and June Allyson share little chemistry, a vital component to the first film or any romantic comedy. Another is that June, 39 when this was made, while still very attractive is a bit mature to be convincing as a madcap runaway heiress. Debbie Reynolds, who was in her mid-twenties at the time would have been a better fit.

Scenes that crackled in the first just move the story along in this from place to place. Full of forgettable music which adds nothing to the original tale and a the high gloss look that was a signature of 50's cinema.

Well made but lacking the Capra touch.

Any fool should have known that a remake of "It Happened One Night" would not measure up, but somebody had to prove it. Jack Lemmon and June Allyson don't have anything like the chemistry that Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert had in the original, and Allyson is really miscast as a naive young heiress.

Still, I'm glad that "You Can't Run Away From It" is a musical remake, because the songs are fairly good, even if they're not the best ever written by the team of DePaul and Mercer. The title song is as memorable -- and hummable -- as many an overdone pop standard, and all the others are at least pleasant. So things could have been worse.

Towards the end of her career as a leading lady on the big screen, June Allyson did three remakes of classic films from the Thirties, My Man Godfrey, The Opposite Sex (The Women), and this film You Can't Run Away From It which is a musical version of It Happened One Night. Directing the film is June's real life husband Dick Powell.

It's a pleasant enough remake and I think Columbia and Dick Powell were wise in changing the location from a bus trip north from Florida to New York to a bus trip east from San Diego to Houston. It made for some very nice cinematography of the trip east. June's father in this film is Texas millionaire Charles Bickford and she's gone and married polo playing gigolo, Jacques Scott.

In keeping with the times the movie would have us believe that June's a virgin snatched from the brink of marriage consummation with Scott. This was the age when Doris Day was starting her career as a professional virgin, in fact I'm surprised that Harry Cohn didn't think to get Day for the part.

Probably because with June they got Dick Powell as a director as a package deal. Powell certainly knew from musical films. Gene DePaul and Johnny Mercer wrote the score which was mostly forgettable except for the song Howdy Friends and Neighbors. That number was an ensemble piece done on the bus, if you'll remember in the original the public domain song, The Man On The Flying Trapeze was used and very effectively. Stubby Kaye played a sailor on leave and he led the number. It was very nicely staged, very similar to the Jubilation T. Cornpone number that DePaul and Mercer wrote for Kaye for Lil Abner. The number should have gotten greater popularity.

You Can't Run Away From It doesn't come anywhere near to be as good a film as It Happened One Night which set the standard for screwball screen comedy. And certainly no one thought that Claudette Colbert was a virgin. Jack Lemmon fits very nicely into Clark Gable's part as the down on his luck news reporter who finds Allyson as she's running away from dad and latches on to her.

Perhaps it's time to do another remake of It Happened One Night. I can see Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as the young heiress.

The last review I read at IMDb for this film stated that it starred a "young" June Allyson. Actually, she was 39, seven years older than her co-star, Jack Lemmon, and MUCH too old to play the part of a young heiress fleeing her father. This in a nutshell is what ruins the film (along with it being made into a musical for the 2nd time). Not that she didn't do her best, but that she was simply miscast.

Besides, it was foolish to try to recreate a film when the original was already perfect. They had nowhere to go but down. Apparently, Allyson's husband (director of the film) was trying to bank in on what he thought would be a sure thing. The film did indeed make money, but not one person who ever lived thought it was remotely as good as the original. If you haven't see the 1934 version called It Happened One Night, do yourself a favor and watch that one first. There's a very good chance you won't want to bother watching another version once you see how good Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were. Incidentally, this film was remade into a musical once before during the 1940s, and again was quite inferior to the original. Perhaps Hollywood should learn to leave a good thing alone.

June Allyson and Jack Lemmon star in this musical remake of "It Happened One Night," which centers on an oil heiress who is taken by her father from her wedding to a man of whom her father doesn't approve. When her father played by Charles Bickford threatens to have the marriage annulled, she jumps off the yacht they're on and gets away. The father instantly sets up an extensive search for her before she can get to her newlywed husband in Houston. Jack Lemmon is a newspaperman whose path crosses hers. Such is the gist. While this is essentially a scene-for-scene and almost word-for-word remake of the Clark Gable film and not nearly so good, it is a very pleasant, enjoyable little film helped by some very upbeat songs and the chemistry of the two leads. As remakes go, I've seen a lot worse. And, it looks like they had fun making this, especially June Allyson, who has a good dance number in the hay! June Allyson was a very good comedienne. Not much is said about her comedic timing. It's been said she was a good crier; she could cry on cue in her melodramas. But she was very funny in her comedies. One other good example is "Two Sisters from Boston." And, Jack Lemmon is always a joy to watch. Charles Bickford is a little stiff for the role of her father though. Arthur O'Connell would have been better. If you come across this film on TCM, I think you'd enjoy this whimsical piece of fluff.

Evidently someone decided that since they had Technicolor available they could remake It Happened One Night. June Allyson, who was 39 when it was made, is dreadfully miscast as a rich brat who runs away from her father. Jack Lemmon tries his best to make it work, but even he must have cringed when singing the lame musical sequences. The black and white of the original mirrored the gloomy darkness of the Great Depression, and the rich brat's handing the last of their money to a hungry woman was a big turning point of the whole movie; none of that here. When will Hollywood producers learn that you can't remake perfection?

I agree with most other reviewers here that this is a pale remake of a great classic film, though I found it mildly pleasant anyway.

Some of the other reviewers said why even try to remake a classic; why bother. What they don't understand is the big difference between our film culture and the pre-home video, pre-TCM, pre-repertory cinema era. Successful films were remade, because producers thought they were a good bet to make a profit. The studios usually already owned the story and had an effective script to base an update on; no need to pay for the rights to a play or novel, and they could probably pay less for an an updated script than for a new one. If the story was well received and made money years before, it had a better chance of being successful than untested material. The great majority of the potential audience for a remake had either never seen the older version, or had seen it many years before, usually just once, so the older version was just a faint memory. And much of the audience would be interested in seeing the story told with current stars, in color, and when it came in, in wide screen.

On another note, as of June 2015, TCM is still showing a poor quality print of the movie, the Cimemascope image cropped to something like 1:66 to 1 (it was not pan and scanned), color washed out (not remotely like what Technicolor print would have looked like when the film was new), mono soundtrack (the original was stereo according to IMDb). I imagine this is because it is not economically viable for Sony (owners of the Columbia film achieve) to do a new transfer.

This was one of Jack Lemmon's first films. He is cast in the role of Peter Warren, a free-lance journalist who takes on the challenge of escorting spoiled rich girl Ellie Andrews (played by June Allyson) back to her Father (Charles Bickford) and husband. Peter and Ellie didn't plan on falling in love during their bus trip, but it happened ... just as in "It Happened One Night" starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. This re-make is remarkably faithful to the original in plot and content. I would classify it as a charming, very tame movie worth the 80 minutes or so to watch it.

Here is a remake of "It Happened One Night", the Oscar winner for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Now, it's OK to remake a bad movie; you just may improve it. But never try to improve on a great film! I've been a Jack Lemmon fan for many, many years and often wondered if he'd ever made any really bad films. This picture gave me the answer, although I can't say that Lemmon gives a bad performance. He's just not Clark Gable, and shouldn't have tried to be. Miss Allyson is Miss Allyson, no matter what role she plays, and just doesn't carry this one off. To make matters worse, they made a sort of musical out of it. The songs are not memorable, nor do they fit. Their presence is something like a bump in a carpet. They just shouldn't be there. Honestly, if you're a June Allyson fan, you may find this effort amusing, otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time.

June allyson, jack lemmon. This seems to be a musical version of "it happened one night". And every film where the girl's father does not approve of the groom ! In this one, the young couple is already married, so ellen's father kidnaps her and tries to drag her home. Lots of singing. And in this one, the reporter tells the bride he's onto her. But promises he won't spill the beans. Some fun co-stars too. Jim backus and charles bickford. Howard mcnear. Jack albertson. Even a quick bit by henny youngman (the first bus driver). It's okay. Some over the top acting, and the songs are a big waste of time. Were they short on script?? Directed by dick powell....one of the seven that he directed! And he was married to the star here, june allyson. Of course powell died so young at 58. He sure acted in some great films. This one is okay. Would have been better with less singer and a stronger script. They had all these great comedians, but didn't give them much to do!

Definitely from another era. When Jack Lemmon and June Allyson find circumstances forcing them to share a hotel room, they hang a blanket up between their single beds. I'm not sure why they have to do this - modesty? lack of self-control? I also wondered why Ms. Allyson would marry a man she doesn't love, and why Mr. Lemmon had never thought about loving a woman.

Lemmon and Allyson are starred; and they are interesting to watch, especially during the scene when she declares her love to him. Allyson has an energetic "Scarecrow" number. The movie doesn't sparkle like it should, however. The actors do not make the situation believable. There are times when, instead of background music, there are background songs. This is a bad re-make.

*** You Can't Run Away from It (10/31/56) Dick Powell ~ Jack Lemmon, June Allyson, Charles Bickford

It's a shame that it is so much like It happened one night, only to turn out to be very little like it, in mood or feeling. It is fun to compare both but that is also short lived and disappointing because of the very mediocre songs.

June is OK as the spoiled rich girl and Jack Lemmon brings a new dimension to the tough journalist role. He is much sweeter than Clark. But he isn't the rogue that is needed for this role.

It is glossier than the original and being in color doesn't make it any better or worse.

You will enjoy it more if you haven't seen the other movie or you don't compare it.

Jack Lemmon, a new leading man in Hollywood in the 1950s and a younger June Allyson, straight from the M.G.M. Galaxy of musical stars made this a tuneful technicolour re-make of "It Happened One Night," for Columbia Pictures, ably assisted by Stubby Kaye, who never fails with a song; and all this under the direction of Dick Powell, who was married to June Allyson. There have been many post-war musicals released on Video and DVD and Columbia would do well to add this one to their DVD collection. It would be a fitting tribute to the multi-talented Jack Lemmon and Dick Powell who, himself, who was a song and dance man of the 1930s.

It's been years since I watched It Happened One Night. After enduring the pathetic performance of June Allyson, I realized how fine Claudette Colbert was in the role. Jack Lemmon delivered his usual great performance, but June's delivery and her singing and dancing was embarrassing. Johnny Mercer was one America's great songwriters, but except for the title tune, this score is more befitting a Mascot or Monogram "musical."

Buddy Kaye was enjoyable and the cameo performances of Henny Yougman and Jim Backus added a few smiles, but this is essentially a turkey.

I noticed in a lot of the reviews people have a lot of problems with June Allyson being cast in the Claudette Colbert role of Ellie Andrews as i am a fan of both versions of the movies i have to say i have absolutely no problems with it what so ever. So what if her husband was the director.I liked the teaming of both of June Allyson and Jack Lemmon there chemistry was'nt that bad and the musical numbers were enchanting. June Allyson will always be a favourite of mine with her raspery voice and her charm that comes out a lot in her movies. And Jack Lemmon has that great likable factor like James Stewart. So don't think this movie as a remake but as an affectionate tribute.

These oldies are so great and love is love at any time. For Christ sake DVD them. Jack Lemon and June Allyson were the best. We need to revive them. I have been living in Brazil for the last 40 years. I saw this movie when I was a kid and I never forgot the song "You can't run Away from it". Fantastic comedy, fantastic actors, Fantastic time. Those who make the DVD industry, bring these good times back to us. They could take these old films and turn them into some kind of collectors items. Most of those who lived then are still here. We would like to show our kids and grandkids what it was like back at that time. June Allyson and Jack Lemon were not so different from Julia Roberts and Clive Owens or any others actors of today. Come on, bring back the good old times. I miss them so much.

I don't agree that this movie follows the script of It Happened One Night. As I recall, there were numerous changes. This movie was livelier, more fast-paced and more enjoyable. The fact that it has a musical number and is in color is just icing on the cake. It's also a little less straight-laced than the original.

It baffles me that movies like this are not available on VHS and DVD. Especially with ultra-popular stars like Jack Lemmon and June Allyson. Are they afraid that the original movie will be eclipsed? It won't happened. Look at "Little Women". Katherine Hepburn's version is out there and is still selling, even though it is worse than all the versions except for the performance by Hepburn.