Run for Cover

James Cagney plays an ex-convict who survives a lynch mob and becomes the town's sheriff in this beautifully shot western directed by the great Nicholas Ray (Johnny Guitar). After serving a six-year prison term for a crime he didn't commit he's once again wrongly accused of robbing a train with a young man (John Derek) he had befriended during his trail. The two men barely survive the trigger-happy posse who would rather shoot first and ask questions later. When word of Cagney's prowess with a gun reaches the local townsfolk, he is offered the job of sheriff. The great cast includes Viveca Lindfors as Swedish farmer's daughter who falls in love with Cagney and Ernest Borgnine as the leader of a dreaded gang of outlaws. This was Cagney's first western since 1939s the Oklahoma Kid.