The 1950s was certainly the decade for re-makes. Some like "Magnificent Obsession", "Imitation of Life" and "An Affair To Remember" were huge hits. Others were refurbished as musicals with only modest-at-most commercial success. Along with this one, I remember "My Sister Eileen", "Silk Stockings" and "L'il Abner".Actually, although classed as a "musical re-make", the songs here are neither memorable nor many. Stubby Kaye figures in the first on the bus, after which he disappears completely from the action. The only other number worth mentioning is a fairly amusing little routine between Allyson and an immobile scarecrow, which would have been ten times funnier had the scarecrow come to life. This omission is symptomatic of the film as a whole. No imagination, no liveliness, no vitality, no pizazz. Even such memorable bits of business from the original as the attempt to thumb a ride are watered down here way past the level of blandness. Were it not for the engaging personalities of its two stars, the movie would be a total write-off. Only the domestic altercation in the motel (ending with the delightfully harassed Walter Baldwin's exit line, "I told you they were married!") comes within shouting distance of matching the zest of the original.

Any fool should have known that a remake of "It Happened One Night" would not measure up, but somebody had to prove it. Jack Lemmon and June Allyson don't have anything like the chemistry that Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert had in the original, and Allyson is really miscast as a naive young heiress.Still, I'm glad that "You Can't Run Away From It" is a musical remake, because the songs are fairly good, even if they're not the best ever written by the team of DePaul and Mercer. The title song is as memorable -- and hummable -- as many an overdone pop standard, and all the others are at least pleasant. So things could have been worse.

A rather benign affair with June Allyson being directed by husband Dick Powell.A year after being rejected to play Lillian Roth in the fabulous "I'll Cry Tomorrow," Allyson made this film which made the best of her limited acting range. While it's true that she made an impression in "The Shrike," she was best suited for light comedy as in "Woman's World." (1954)In this film she is cast with Jack Lemmon. She plays a madcap heiress almost in the way that Katharine Hepburn would have played it up against Cary Grant. Fleeing from a gruff, tyrannical father who has kidnapped her following her marriage to a play-boy, Allyson meets reporter Peter Warne (Lemmon) on the bus and the usual inane antics follow with the two realizing that they were meant for each other. Charles Bickford is the father and ironically, 6 years later, he would appear again with Lemmon in the much acclaimed drama "The Days of Wine and Roses."The talents of Stubby Kaye and Henny Youngman are wasted here in a one scene bus song, where the former tries to rally the passengers on the bus from boredom. He probably knew what the rest of the picture held for the songs are inane as Lemmon and Miss Allyson mouth their way through.Allyn Joslyn, veteran actor of the 1930s, appears as a harried head reporter. Look for 2 scenes with Elvia Allman, as a nasty innkeeper.The ending becomes similar to "The Philadelphia Story," as Allyson realizes who her true lover is. Totally predictable with mediocre results. I rate this **1/2, the same rating that The Daily News gave "It Happened One Night" in 1934.

Here is a remake of "It Happened One Night", the Oscar winner for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Now, it's OK to remake a bad movie; you just may improve it. But never try to improve on a great film! I've been a Jack Lemmon fan for many, many years and often wondered if he'd ever made any really bad films. This picture gave me the answer, although I can't say that Lemmon gives a bad performance. He's just not Clark Gable, and shouldn't have tried to be. Miss Allyson is Miss Allyson, no matter what role she plays, and just doesn't carry this one off. To make matters worse, they made a sort of musical out of it. The songs are not memorable, nor do they fit. Their presence is something like a bump in a carpet. They just shouldn't be there. Honestly, if you're a June Allyson fan, you may find this effort amusing, otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time.