Blu-ray Release: The Running Man

Blu-ray Release Date: June 18, 2019
Price: Blu-ray $26.42
Studio: Arrow Video/MVD

Over a decade after re-defining the thriller with The Third Man, director Carol Reed returned to the genre with 1963’s The Running Man.

Reuniting with that film’s cinematographer Robert Krasker (BAFTA-nominated for his work here), Reed goes in the opposite direction visually, framing the twisty plot in sun-kissed widescreen color. Rex Black (Laurence Harvey, Summer and Smoke) has successfully faked his death in a plane crash and escaped to sunny Málaga under a new identity, waiting for his wife Stella (Lee Remick, Anatomy Of A Murder) to arrive with £50,000 of life insurance money. It’s the start of a blissful, trouble-free new life for the couple – until Stephen (Alan Bates, Gosford Park), the insurance agent in charge of investigating Rex’s death, suddenly arrives in town. Is he just holidaying in Spain, as he claims, or is he on assignment to foil Rex’s scheme?

Adapted by John Mortimer (later the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey) from the novel The Ballad of the Running Man by Shelley Smith, this underappreciated entry in Reed’s celebrated oeuvre makes its official worldwide home video premiere, complete with a slew of bonus features, including the following:

• 2K restoration of the film by Sony Pictures
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-Ray presentation
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Isolated music and effects track
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by Peter William Evans, author of British Film-Makers: Carol Reed
• On The Trail Of The Running Man, all-new featurette with crew members such as script supervisor Angela Allen and assistant director Kits Browning
• Lee Remick at the National Film Theatre, an audio-only recording of the actor’s appearance at the NFT in 1970
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original artwork
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw