diff --git a/Lib/pdb.py b/Lib/pdb.py
index ff40f7b..1b4ff54 100755
--- a/Lib/pdb.py
+++ b/Lib/pdb.py
@@ -1026,7 +1026,11 @@ def do_run(self, arg):
         if arg:
             import shlex
             argv0 = sys.argv[0:1]
-            sys.argv = shlex.split(arg)
+            try:
+                sys.argv = shlex.split(arg)
+            except ValueError as e:
+                self.error('Cannot run %s: %s' % (arg, e))
+                return
             sys.argv[:0] = argv0
         # this is caught in the main debugger loop
         raise Restart