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Reviews
The Running Man (1963)
Entertaining viewing - ignore the lesser reviews
Although not a top rated film, 'The Running Man' is far more entertaining than many reviewers have indicated. The plot is perfectly acceptable and the characters believable.
Yes - Rex Black is egotistic and bumptious; his Australian accent when he takes on the alias of Jim Jerome, whose passport he pockets, is unrealistic, but he is not playing a trained actor coached in different accents, he is supposed to be just a bloke who is putting on what he thinks is an Australian accent.
One or two reviewers obviously lost the plot halfway through. Although Rex (or Jim) is under the impression that Alan Bates' character, Stephen Maddox, is investigating his wife and the insurance claim, Lee Remick, as Stella, discovers that Maddox is no longer with the insurance firm, but never imparts this information to her husband, even on his deathbed.
The location filming and scenery are great, and the whole film is enjoyable.. It may not be Carol Reed's finest, but for the average film fan it is still worth seeing.
Broadway Serenade (1939)
Not as bad as some reviewers say
Although not as brilliant as some of the MacDonald/Eddy musicals, the storyline is acceptable; boy (composer) is happily married to girl (singer) - she gets a break, succeeds big time; he struggles; through her career, they are parted; she files for divorce and is eventually engaged to be married to another man just as her ex hits the big time with a musical in which she is to star. Her fiancé realises that she still loves her ex and bows out of the picture, leaving the reconciled couple to the astounding success of the first night of the new musical..
There is a wide variety of musical numbers, most of which are very enjoyable.Regretably, the final sequence, the opening night of the new musical, is rather strangely chereographed by Busby Berkeley. If treated in a more traditional manner, as Berkeley had done during his time at Warner Brothers, it would have made a fitting climax to the film. Unfortunately, it leaves us feeling disappointed in what could have been an otherwise very enjoyable movie.