RUN FOR THE SUN—-taut adventure, taken from the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”. A World-wise & weary writer (Richard Widmark) and a fearless lady reporter (Jane Greer) crash-land their small plane in a jungle region ‘south of the border’.  They become the guests, then the prisoners, finally the prey, of a couple of nasty types who fled Europe after Adolf bit the Big Tamale.

Trevor Howard makes an intelligent villain and Peter Van Eyck is in his sarcastic forte as the second menace. Greer is okay. Widmark is excellent, in that hard-boiled, taunting manner of anti-hero at which he excelled throughout the 50s and 60s.

This 99-minute 1956 matinée has ample tension, thanks to direction from Roy Boulting, who co-wrote the adaptation of the Richard Connell classic with veteran Dudley Nichols. Fred Steiner composed an exciting score. Shot in Mexico, the job almost proved fatal to Greer, who did some injurious stumbling about in some swamp water and contracted a rare virus called Coxsaci V. This evil bacterium first laid her low for some weeks, then began a five-year incubation as it did its peculiarly evil work, eroding the protective pericardium membrane around the heart. A life-perilous operation resulted, but Jane pulled through, albeit with a long break from work.