The Runner Stumbles

The Runner Stumbles is a 1979 film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, based on the Broadway play by Milan Stitt. The film stars Dick Van Dyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Tammy Grimes, Beau Bridges and Ray Bolger.

Plot

The film is set in 1927 at a Roman Catholic parish in a rural town in Washington state. Sister Rita (Kathleen Quinlan), a young nun, arrives at the parish to help run the church school. When the parish’s two elderly nuns contract tuberculosis, Sister Rita is forced to move into the rectory that is home to Father Rivard (Dick Van Dyke), the parish priest. The close proximity between the two begins to set off gossip and suspicions, to the point that a monsignor from the diocese (Ray Bolger) comes to give Father Rivard a talking-to. The gossip turns out to be correct, as the priest and the nun confess their love for each other. However, their declaration of emotion leads to tragedy. [ [http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=7464 Spirituality and Practice review] ]

Reception

"The Runner Stumbles" opened to mixed-to-negative reviews. Janet Maslin, writing in "The New York Times", complained: “The movie's ethics are...so hazy, and its attention to religion so perfunctory, that it almost seems as if this were a story about something else that had been transferred, as an afterthought, to a Church setting...Mr. Kramer treats the film's religious questions as afterthoughts, and too often achieves a dispirited, noncommittal tone.” [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E07E1DD133EE732A25755C1A9679D946890D6CF&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes New York Times review] ]

Roger Ebert, writing in the "Chicago Sun-Times", considered the film to be “a little silly,” but added that “in its relentlessly old-fashioned way, "The Runner Stumbles" has a sort of dramatic persistence: It's not great, but it's there.” [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19800206/REVIEWS/2060301/1023 Chicago Sun-Times] ] "Variety" criticized the film for being “presented in such a way that, at times, it appears like the best of the old-fashioned 1940s tear jerkers complete with overly lush sound track.” [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794605.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 Variety review] ]

"The Runner Stumbles" was not commercial successful and it turned out to be the last film directed by Stanley Kramer. The film had a brief VHS video release, but to date it has not been released on DVD.

References

External links

*imdb title | id=0079831 | title=The Runner Stumbles
*" [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/runner_stumbles The Runner Stumbles] " at Rotten Tomatoes