Runner Stumbles (1979)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 9
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 3
liked it
Average Rating: 5/5
User Ratings: 14
My Rating
Movie Info
Director Stanley Kramer ended his career with this absorbing drama, adapted from the play by Milan Stitt and based on a real-life event from 1927. Dick Van Dyke stars as Father Rivard, an intellectual priest in a small, impoverished mining town in the state of Washington. A lonely man with low self-esteem, Rivard is depressed by the arduous and dreary lives of his flock, until the arrival of Sister Rita (Kathleen Quinlan), a bright, spirited young nun who joins his parish to teach at its school.
Dec 13, 1990
Cast
-
Dick Van Dyke
Father Rivard -
Kathleen Quinlan
Sister Rita -
Maureen Stapleton
Mrs. Shandig -
Ray Bolger
Monsignor Nicholson -
Tammy Grimes
Erna -
Beau Bridges
Toby -
Allen Nause
Prosecutor -
John Procaccino
Amos -
Sister Marguerite Morriss...
Sister Immaculata -
Zoaunne Le Roy
Sister Martha -
Don Riley
Maurice -
Ted D'Arms
Sheriff -
Kendall Kay Munsey
Louise -
Casey Kramer
Marie -
Jim Doyle
Matt Webber -
Katharine Kramer
Sophie -
Bill Dore
Judge -
Jock Dove
Dr. McNabb -
Larry Buck
Fire Chief -
Billy Jayne
James
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All Critics (9) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (4) | Rotten (5)
Throughout, the film is paced by fine performances, especially Van Dyke as Father Rivard, Quinlan as Sister Rita and Maureen Stapleton as Van Dyke's housekeeper.
Deadly earnestness over Van Dyke's tortured celibacy becomes risible long before the Perry Mason conclusion and a final scene of indescribable bathos.
Top CriticMr. Van Dyke's performance, though extremely sympathetic, is hard to assess. He worries and suffers, but the film finds nothing vital in his ordeal.
In its relentlessly old-fashioned way, The Runner Stumbles has a sort of dramatic persistence: It's not great, but it's there.
A compelling and memorable drama, via Stanley Kramer.
The main problem with the film is that inherent to most play adaptations: it's too talky and static, with most of the responsibility for story development left to explanatory dialog.
The Runner Stumbles is an exceptionally fine film about the exigencies of a religious calling and a critique of the legalism within Christianity.
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