Running Scared (1972 film)

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This article is about the 1972 film. For other uses of the same title, see Running Scared

Running Scared is a 1972 film written and directed by David Hemmings. This was the only film written by Hemmings, and his first time directing. It was based on a novel of the same name written by Gregory McDonald.

Robert Powell played Tom Betancourt, a student at Cambridge University, who leaves after watching his best friend committing suicide by slashing his wrists. On principle, Tom refuses to interfere, having discussed the matter with his friend, who insists that it he is doing this by choice and does not wish to be prevented.

Tom then visits his friends parents under an assumed name, and falls in love with the dead boy's sister. A complicated affair ensues. Tom Milne in The Times commented that it "somehow fritters itself away into long, broody pauses and soulful searchings". Several sequences, on the other hand, were "done with a razor-sharp incisiveness that would not have shamed Losey and Pinter ... on balance, it seems worth risking the tedium to watch a born director at work".^[1]

Filmed on location in Braunston, mainly around the canal and marina. Other filming took place in high street, Daventry. The film crew spent most of the summer of 1971 there and local people were asked to be extras. A film camera was positioned on top of the then disused windmill to film Robert Powell in the Healey sports car being driven through the village. The windmill was also used as the "base" for the crew. Although never released on video, there was apparently a 16mm version made.