It lacks a bit of what the industry used to describe as ‘giddyup action’, but it has stronger than expected depth and character in return.

It's not as obviously masterful as some of Ray's other films, it's at the very least an entertaining horse opera with Cagney close to his best.

Ray endows it with his usual themes of generational conflict and societal injustice, and does a powerful job getting these themes across.

You think you're the only one in the world ever got a raw deal... There's a lot of people in this world who've had a tougher time than you or me. Run for Cover is directed by Nicholas Ray and adapted to screenplay by Winston Miller from a story by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch. It stars James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors, John Derek, Jean Hersholt, Grant Withers, Jack Lambert, Ray Teal and Ernest Borgnine. A Technicolor/VistaVison production, with music by Howard Jackson and cinematography by Daniel Fapp. When Matt Dow (Cagney) and Davey Bishop (Derek) meet up they quickly become friends, but events conspire to see them wrongly suspected of robbing the train heading for Madison. Hunted down by a Madison posse, Bishop, a Madison resident, is severely injured and Dow taken to town for possible lynching. What unfolds is the truth comes out and the two men end up working as the law in town, but there is many more secrets to be unearthed in this part of New Mexico... Nicholas Ray brings a meditative state to the picture, ensuring the thematics of surrogate families, generation conflicts, mob justice and the corruption of youth, are all delicately handled by the great director, even dealing in Freudian textures for the key character relationship. There's a whiff of High Noon in how Matt will inevitably have to stand alone, and he will also have to fight inner turmoil about injus…