tishco It's a shame that it is so much like It happened one night, only to turn out to be very little like it, in mood or feeling. It is fun to compare both but that is also short lived and disappointing because of the very mediocre songs. June is OK as the spoiled rich girl and Jack Lemmon brings a new dimension to the tough journalist role. He is much sweeter than Clark. But he isn't the rogue that is needed for this role.It is glossier than the original and being in color doesn't make it any better or worse.You will enjoy it more if you haven't seen the other movie or you don't compare it.

bkoganbing Towards the end of her career as a leading lady on the big screen, June Allyson did three remakes of classic films from the Thirties, My Man Godfrey, The Opposite Sex (The Women), and this film You Can't Run Away From It which is a musical version of It Happened One Night. Directing the film is June's real life husband Dick Powell.It's a pleasant enough remake and I think Columbia and Dick Powell were wise in changing the location from a bus trip north from Florida to New York to a bus trip east from San Diego to Houston. It made for some very nice cinematography of the trip east. June's father in this film is Texas millionaire Charles Bickford and she's gone and married polo playing gigolo, Jacques Scott. In keeping with the times the movie would have us believe that June's a virgin snatched from the brink of marriage consummation with Scott. This was the age when Doris Day was starting her career as a professional virgin, in fact I'm surprised that Harry Cohn didn't think to get Day for the part. Probably because with June they got Dick Powell as a director as a package deal. Powell certainly knew from musical films. Gene DePaul and Johnny Mercer wrote the score which was mostly forgettable except for the song Howdy Friends and Neighbors. That number was an ensemble piece done on the bus, if you'll remember in the original the public domain song, The Man On The Flying Trapeze was used and very effectively. Stubby Kaye played a sailor on leave and he led the number. It was very nicely staged, very similar to the Jubilation T. Cornpone number that DePaul and Mercer wrote for Kaye for Lil Abner. The number should have gotten greater popularity.You Can't Run Away From It doesn't come anywhere near to be as good a film as It Happened One Night which set the standard for screwball screen comedy. And certainly no one thought that Claudette Colbert was a virgin. Jack Lemmon fits very nicely into Clark Gable's part as the down on his luck news reporter who finds Allyson as she's running away from dad and latches on to her. Perhaps it's time to do another remake of It Happened One Night. I can see Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as the young heiress.

wedraughon I don't agree that this movie follows the script of It Happened One Night. As I recall, there were numerous changes. This movie was livelier, more fast-paced and more enjoyable. The fact that it has a musical number and is in color is just icing on the cake. It's also a little less straight-laced than the original.It baffles me that movies like this are not available on VHS and DVD. Especially with ultra-popular stars like Jack Lemmon and June Allyson. Are they afraid that the original movie will be eclipsed? It won't happened. Look at "Little Women". Katherine Hepburn's version is out there and is still selling, even though it is worse than all the versions except for the performance by Hepburn.

Mike Spangler This was one of Jack Lemmon's first films. He is cast in the role of Peter Warren, a free-lance journalist who takes on the challenge of escorting spoiled rich girl Ellie Andrews (played by June Allyson) back to her Father (Charles Bickford) and husband. Peter and Ellie didn't plan on falling in love during their bus trip, but it happened ... just as in "It Happened One Night" starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. This re-make is remarkably faithful to the original in plot and content. I would classify it as a charming, very tame movie worth the 80 minutes or so to watch it.