Odd Man Out (1946)
Country: GB
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan, F. J. McCormick
Synopsis:
A recently escaped IRA kingpin is wounded in a robbery aimed at securing funds for the cause, and wanders the streets of Belfast dependent on chance and the kindness of strangers. Meanwhile, his associates, his girl and the police actively seek him out, with varying success.
Review:
The beginning of a superlative quartet of films for Reed, it bears some stylistic and thematic similarities with The Third Man, notably the possibility of pity and love for a guilty man, though the treatment is very different. Here all is sobriety (except for Newton's drunken artist) and solemnity: as the music reminds us, McQueen is a doomed man and Kathleen's love is also doomed. Its unities give it a cumulative power, and the new faces were a breath of fresh air; Reed wanted everything to be as real as possible, and it is the city itself, its streets and interiors, that sticks in the mind, set off by Krasker's deep focus cinematography. The use of the location - the heads poking out of windows or disappearing behind closing doors, the wet cobbled streets -also recalls The Third Man.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan, F. J. McCormick
Synopsis:
A recently escaped IRA kingpin is wounded in a robbery aimed at securing funds for the cause, and wanders the streets of Belfast dependent on chance and the kindness of strangers. Meanwhile, his associates, his girl and the police actively seek him out, with varying success.
Review:
The beginning of a superlative quartet of films for Reed, it bears some stylistic and thematic similarities with The Third Man, notably the possibility of pity and love for a guilty man, though the treatment is very different. Here all is sobriety (except for Newton's drunken artist) and solemnity: as the music reminds us, McQueen is a doomed man and Kathleen's love is also doomed. Its unities give it a cumulative power, and the new faces were a breath of fresh air; Reed wanted everything to be as real as possible, and it is the city itself, its streets and interiors, that sticks in the mind, set off by Krasker's deep focus cinematography. The use of the location - the heads poking out of windows or disappearing behind closing doors, the wet cobbled streets -also recalls The Third Man.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan, F. J. McCormick
Synopsis:
A recently escaped IRA kingpin is wounded in a robbery aimed at securing funds for the cause, and wanders the streets of Belfast dependent on chance and the kindness of strangers. Meanwhile, his associates, his girl and the police actively seek him out, with varying success.
Review:
The beginning of a superlative quartet of films for Reed, it bears some stylistic and thematic similarities with The Third Man, notably the possibility of pity and love for a guilty man, though the treatment is very different. Here all is sobriety (except for Newton's drunken artist) and solemnity: as the music reminds us, McQueen is a doomed man and Kathleen's love is also doomed. Its unities give it a cumulative power, and the new faces were a breath of fresh air; Reed wanted everything to be as real as possible, and it is the city itself, its streets and interiors, that sticks in the mind, set off by Krasker's deep focus cinematography. The use of the location - the heads poking out of windows or disappearing behind closing doors, the wet cobbled streets -also recalls The Third Man.