Man on the Run

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2016)

If one could accuse Alfred Hitchcock of having a formula, it might be the one where a person who is innocent stumbles into a situation where he/she (usually he) is blamed for something he/she didn't do. The cards are stacked against them and it is up to them to prove their innocence. It often involves extensive travel with a companion who distrusts them at first (prototype "The Thirty-Nine Steps). In this one, a saboteur in a plant gets himself killed and the protagonist, Robert Cummings, gets blamed for what happens. He is pursued by the law, captured, handcuffed, but manages to free himself. He pursues the evildoer to New York City where we have one of the most famous scenes in all of cinema, involving the Empire State Building. Of course, King Kong played that venue earlier. At times this lacks the sparkle of some of Hitch's films, but it still has a great deal of suspense an excitement.