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.
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.