The Running Man (1963 film)
| The Running Man | |
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| Directed by | Carol Reed |
| Produced by | Carol Reed |
| Written by | Shelley Smith (book) John Mortimer (screenplay) |
| Starring |
Laurence Harvey Lee Remick Alan Bates Felix Aylmer |
| Music by | William Alwyn |
| Cinematography | Robert Krasker |
| Edited by | Bert Bates |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Running Man is a 1963 British drama film directed by Carol Reed, starring Laurence Harvey as a man who fakes his own death in a glider accident, then runs into trouble when an insurance investigator starts taking a close interest.
It was filmed in San Roque, Cádiz, Spain, Gibraltar and Ireland. The film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 1 August 1963.
Lee Remick and Alan Bates co-starred with Harvey.
The film briefly came to the attention of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy because of a viral marketing campaign which placed personal ads in the Dallas Morning News asking the "Running Man" to please call "Lee". Investigators thought that they might be coded messages placed by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald until they discovered the source of the advertisements. In Hollywood, an urban legend arose claiming that the film was a flop because it starred actors named Lee and Harvey.
In Croydon, England, seemingly grieving Stella Black (Lee Remick) has just returned home from her husband's funeral. Apparently, he died in a gliding accident when the glider he had rented crashed into the sea, and his body was never recovered. In reality, she knows her husband Rex Black (Laurence Harvey) is still alive and has been in hiding at a seaside boarding house for three months under the assumed name of Erskine, a shoe salesman on vacation, between the time of his "death" and the funeral. He has just clandestinely returned home following the funeral. They are perpetrating this ruse to collect on the £50,000 life insurance money from the Excelsior Insurance Company. They feel Excelsior owes them this money as, in the previous year, Excelsior did not pay out a £20,000 business insurance claim when his airplane, which he used to operate his own transport company, went down in bad weather on a flight to Hamburg, West Germany, and was destroyed. His insurance had lapsed by two days due to an error in not paying the latest premium – Rex admitting that it may have been his error - which in turn ruined his business.
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Wikipedia