Running Man (BLU-RAY)

Over a decade after redefining the thriller with The Third Man, director Carol Reed returned to the genre with 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 colour. Rex Black (Laurence Harvey, Walk On The Wild Side) 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 insightful new bonus features.