David,

I haven't been able to find any indication that the song was ever released on record, but
I did find this description of the movie on another website that answers the question of
who sang it:

THE BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN (1957 Allied Artists)
This was the first of seven independent westerns produced and directed by Albert C.
Gannaway, the country music entrepreneur whose Flamingo Films Company in 1954
secured the cooperation of the Grand Ole Opry to film country music stars performing on
stage. The success of that operation led to an additional 92 half hour TV shows lensed in
color featuring more than 1,000 performances by Opry stars. These were packaged,
packaged again and repackaged for sale to TV on into the '80s. Even several movies were
cut from the footage, COUNTRY MUSIC CARAVAN, COUNTRY MUSIC JUBILEE and
COUNTRY MUSIC JAMBOREE. The stars, Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb, Minnie
Pearl, Faron Young, Little Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Carl Smith, etc., complained long
and vociferously that they were never paid for the multiple use of their talents-if they
were paid at all! In 1957, probably with money earned from the country music programs,
Gannaway entered film production with THE BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN starring Jim
Davis and featuring Carl Smith as the Sheriff and Marty Robbins as a Mexican!?! Oddly,
neither are given an opportunity to sing while the title song, "Man On the Run", is
manhandled by Ramez Idriss. It's a terrible song to begin with ... maybe Marty and Carl
said, "No way!" It's a stinker of a movie with far too much philosophical talk about duty
("Don't ever try to run away from your shadow.") and need. Gannaway must have been
quite a con-man to coerce not only Davis, Robbins and Smith into this low budgeter, but
also Arleen Whalen, Douglas Fowley, Harry Lauter, Louis Jean Heydt, Larry Dobkin, Rick
Vallin and Lee Van Cleef. The single guitar background score was obviously cheap and is,
at times, also inappropriate. Gannaway fancied himself a director --- no doubt to save a
salary --- but his direction is too laid back and meandering. He went on to produce and/or
direct DANIEL BOONE TRAILBLAZER, RAIDERS OF OLD CALIFORNIA, HIDDEN GUNS,
MAN OR GUN, PLUNDERERS OF PAINTED FLATS and BUFFALO GUN --- several of which
were distributed by an on-its-last-legs-Republic. Gannaway's films often used the same
actors --- Bruce Bennett, Faron Young, Tom Hubbard (who also wrote four of them
including this one), Jim Davis, Lee Van Cleef and stuntmen Bill Ward (who owned the
Lone Ranger's horse Silver and was Clayton Moore's double on THE LONE RANGER for
several years), Bill Coontz (aka Foster) and Whitey Hughes. As a matter of fact, RAIDERS
OF OLD CALIFORNIA was probably shot simultaneously with BADGE OF MARSHAL
BRENNAN as the casts are identical. Even one of both film's lobbycards display the same
scene of Jim Davis and Lee Van Cleef! Now that's cheap! Unfortunately, Gannaway's
direction didn't get any better as he went along. He was a true '50s throwback to Robert
J. Horner, J. P. McGowan, Victor Adamson, B. B. Ray and the other cheapjack directors
and producers of the '30s. The TV print was distributed by Max and Arthur Alexander's
M&A Alexander Prod. (See DANGER TRAILS, IDAHO KID) who still had their hand in after
all those years.

By the way, you can buy a copy of this movie from this collector in the U.S., but since
you're in England, you'd need an all-region DVD player or VCR to play it (you'll find it
listed under his "B" titles):

http://bpm123.net/

pdishal, June 21, 2006; 8:15 AM

Many thanks for the very informative reply, Pdishal. It was very interesting. Despite the writer’s low opinion of the film and the theme song, I remember thinking both were very good at the time and as a ten / eleven years old boy, I was always singing it. It has stuck in my mind, even though I only saw the film once. It would be interesting to be able to see it again and hear the theme song now I am so very much older, but I doubt that I’ll ever be able to. Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, if that site used to be called Robert’s Hard To Find Videos, Robert is a complete shark with numerous complaints about him and has a deserved reputation for taking your money and not sending the videos (probably because he hasn’t actually got them in the first place). Perhaps one day, they’ll run the film on television here and then I’ll be able to tape it. Both my DVD and video players are multi-regional and can play American copies.

David in England.


david_rayner, June 21, 2006; 11:13 AM

David, just wanted to let you know that the collector whose link I gave you, although his
name is Bob, is entirely different from Robert's Videos (which I know has a terrible
reputation -- and which I think is in Canada, not the U.S.). Bob's reputation is just the
opposite -- very honest and helpful. I've only bought one video from him myself, and that
was quite a few years ago, before he started offering DVD-Rs. At the time, he charged
$15 per title; it might be more now (and probably a few dollars extra for overseas
shipping). If you do decide to order from him, you should realize that many of the movies
in his collection were taped from a TV broadcast, so the picture quality isn't going to equal
a pre-recorded video.

(And despite that negative review above, I've also read several favorable reviews of
BADGE OF MARSHAL BRENNAN.)

pdishal, June 22, 2006; 6:39 AM

Thanks for clearing that up, Pdishal. I shall be looking into this. Yes, I would have thought that any such video or DVD of the film would have had to be recorded off a television transmission. But I’d do that myself if only they would show it on television over here. Many films are shown over and over again, ad infinitum. While others are never shown, as there isn’t room for them in the programme schedules because of all the endless repeats. And the only way of getting a recording of a certain film score if it has never been issued on a record or a CD, is to record the film off television.

david_rayner, June 22, 2006; 11:09 AM

Hi.
In answer to you wanting the film The Badge Of Marshal Brennan-- I do have a good quality copy of this film on DVD with picture sleeve if you are interested.
Great film with Marty Robbins as Pepe.
I await to here from you. Do email me I live in the UK.
hillsiders

mauricebowers, September 10, 2008; 4:30 PM

Hi, Maurice, many thanks for the offer, but by coincidence, I bought a DVD of the film off an eBay seller only a week or so ago and now have it in my collection. I’ve been an eBayer for nearly seven years and this was the first time the film had turned up on there. As I hadn’t seen the film since January, 1958, when I was ten, going on eleven years of age, it was very strange watching it again after nearly fifty-one years, because a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since then.

One thing I had completely forgotten about was that there was no music score as such (save for the theme song) and that the film only had a Fender electric guitar accompaniment, which sounds very odd now.

How different a film can seem to you when you are ten years old and in such a different time as the 1950’s. It was a completely different world back then. Thanks again for thinking about me.

Best Wishes from David in Stoke on Trent, England.


david_rayner, September 10, 2008; 6:08 PM