Odd Man Out

Odd Man Out is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in a Northern Irish city, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade police in the aftermath of a robbery. It is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by F. L. Green.[4]

For other uses, see Odd Man Out (disambiguation).

Odd Man Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCarol Reed
Produced byCarol Reed
Written byR. C. Sherriff
Based onOdd Man Out
by F. L. Green
Starring
Music byWilliam Alwyn
CinematographyRobert Krasker
Edited byFergus McDonell
Production
company
Distributed byRank Organisation
Release date
  • 31 January 1947 (1947-01-31) (United Kingdom)[1]
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget> US$1 million[2]
Box officeUS$1.25 million (US rentals)[3]

The film received the first BAFTA Award for Best British Film, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Filmmaker Roman Polanski repeatedly cited Odd Man Out as his favourite film.

Plot

Former Irish nationalist 'organisation' member Johnny McQueen has been hiding the past six months since his escape from prison in a house occupied by Kathleen Sullivan (who has fallen in love with Johnny) and her grandmother. To obtain funds, he is ordered to rob a mill. His men, however, question his fitness for the task. They have noticed a change in him since his escape, not least in his suggestion that negotiation might achieve their goals more effectively than violence. Dennis, Johnny's lieutenant offers to take his place, but is turned down.

Johnny, Nolan, and Murphy successfully carry out the robbery. As the gang leaves the mill and run to the getaway car Johnny, due to his seclusion suffers a bout of vertigo and is confronted by an armed security man, as they scuffle and fall to the floor, both are shot, Johnny in the shoulder and the guard fatally. Nolan and Murphy run back to put Johnny in the car, but the driver, Pat speeds off with Johnny half-in. Pat won't slow and Johnny falls out of the car onto the street. As the gang argue over driving back to retrieve Johnny, he gets up being completely disorientated and runs down a nearby side street, finding some air raid shelters close by to hide in.

Dennis orders the others to report to headquarters. Along the way, however, the trio arouse the suspicion of the police, out in force on a manhunt for the robbers. They are pursued, but get away. Pat and Nolan stop off at Theresa O'Brien's well-to-do guest house, but Murphy does not trust her and goes elsewhere. She reports the pair to the authorities while they relax drinking whiskey. Theresa urges them to leave as the police are on the way, delivering them straight into the hands of the police. The two spot the police and open fire on constables who then return fire killing them both.

Dennis finds Johnny, but the police show up nearby. Dennis is captured after drawing them away.

Johnny makes his way toward Kathleen's place, but collapses in the street. Passers-by Maureen and Maudie take him home, thinking he has been struck by a passing lorry. They attempt to give first-aid then see it is a gunshot wound, realising who they have found as the husband returns. An argument over what to do starts, Johnny hears their debate and departs, getting into a parked hansom cab. "Gin" Jimmy, the cab driver, comes out and starts looking for a fare, unaware he already has a wanted man for a passenger. When he finds out, he drops Johnny off as quickly as he can.

Shell spots him dumping the now nearly unconscious fugitive. A poor man, Shell goes to Catholic priest Father Tom, hoping for a financial reward. By chance, Kathleen arrives shortly afterward, looking for help. Father Tom tells Kathleen that Johnny has killed a man and must pay the price. She replies that she will kill him herself rather than let him be taken and executed and she will kill herself to go with him and protect him, which the priest tries to talk her out of. Father Tom persuades Shell to fetch Johnny. Shell, while dropping off his pet bird at home, has to fend off another resident, the eccentric painter Lukey, who wants him to pose for a portrait again; an argument starts between them. Meanwhile, Johnny revives and stumbles into a local pub where he is recognised by the landlord, Fencie, who quickly deposits Johhny in a snug where no one else will see him. As Fencie wonders how to rid himself of Johnny without causing offence to either side, Shell and Lukey who separately have converged on the bar start a fight with each other. Fencie breaks it up closes for the evening and persuades Lukey to take Johnny away in a cab as penance. Over Shell's protests, Lukey takes Johnny back to his studio to paint his portrait. Failed medical student Tober tends to Johnny's wound as best he can. Johnny hallucinates, thinking Father Tom is talking to him.

When a sympathetic police inspector, who had earlier led a search of Kathleen's home and warned her against getting involved, shows up to try to get information from Father Tom, Kathleen slips away. She arranges passage on a ship for Johnny and goes searching for him. Shell starts Johnny toward Father Tom's, then goes ahead and encounters Kathleen. She takes Johnny toward the ship but sees the police closing in. She then draws a gun and fires twice at nothing, forcing the police to return fire (thanks to their 'two shots fired' rule) killing them both.

Cast

Production

Development

F.L. (Laurie) Green's novel, also used as the basis of the 1969 Sidney Poitier film The Lost Man, was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an Irish Republican, 19-year old Tom Williams.[5] In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. The source of Green's familiarity with the Belfast IRA at the time is thought to be the Belfast writer Denis Ireland.[6] Ireland's anti-Partition Ulster Union Club had been infiltrated by the IRA intelligence officer and recruiter John Graham.[7]

Casting

According to Richard Burton, the lead role was originally offered to Stewart Granger. Burton wrote in his diaries:

Reminds me of Jimmy Granger being sent the script of Odd Man Out by Carol Reed and flipping through the pages where he had dialogue, deciding that the part wasn't long enough. He didn't notice the stage directions so turned it down and James Mason played it instead and made a career out of it. It's probably the best thing that Mason has ever done and certainly the best film he's ever been in while poor Granger has never been in a good classic film at all. Or, as far as I remember, in a good film of any kind. You could after all have a ‘James Mason Festival’ but you couldn't have a ‘Stewart Granger’ one. Except as a joke. Granger tells the story ruefully against himself.[8]

Aside from Mason, the supporting cast was drawn largely from Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Among the other members of the Organisation are Cyril Cusack, Robert Beatty, and Dan O'Herlihy. On his travels, Johnny meets an opportunistic bird-fancier played by F. J. McCormick, a drunken artist played by Robert Newton, a barman (William Hartnell) and a failed surgeon (Elwyn Brook-Jones). Denis O'Dea is the inspector on Johnny's trail, and Kathleen Ryan, in her first feature film, plays the woman who loves Johnny. Also notable are W. G. Fay—a founder of the Abbey Theatre—as the kindly Father Tom, Fay Compton, Joseph Tomelty, and Eddie Byrne. Albert Sharpe plays a bus conductor. A number of non-speaking parts were filled by actors who later achieved public attention, including Dora Bryan, Geoffrey Keen, Noel Purcell, Guy Rolfe and Wilfrid Brambell (a standing passenger in the tram scene). Few of the main actors in the film actually manage an authentic Ulster accent.

Filming

The cinematographer was Robert Krasker, in his first film for director Reed, lighting sets designed by Ralph Brinton and Roger Furse.

The bar set was based on the Crown Bar in Belfast; contrary to some sources, it was a studio set built at D&P Studios in Denham, Buckinghamshire, and was not filmed in the real Crown.[9] However, much of the film was shot on location: Exterior scenes were shot in West Belfast,[9] although some were shot at Broadway Market in London.[10]

Music

Composer William Alwyn was involved writing the leitmotif-based film score from the very beginning of the production. It was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Muir Mathieson.

Reception

Censorship

The film's violent ending attracted advance criticism from the censors, and had to be toned down in the finished film.[11]

Critics

In a favourable review, The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "This film puts Reed high in the first rank of directors."[12]

Leonard Maltin gave the movie 4 out of 4 stars naming it "Incredibly suspenseful."

Box office

It ranked eighth among more popular movies at the British box office in 1947.[13]

Awards

The film received the BAFTA Award for Best British Film in 1948. It was nominated for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1947, and nominated for a Best Film Editing Oscar in 1948.

Award / Film Festival Category Recipients and nominees Result
Academy Awards Best Film Editing Fergus McDonell Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best British Picture Odd Man Out Won

Legacy

Carol Reed biographer Robert F. Moss notes that Odd Man Out is "almost indisputably Reed's masterpiece."[14]

Filmmaker Roman Polanski repeatedly has cited Odd Man Out as his favourite film.[15] Polanski stated that Odd Man Out is superior to The Third Man, another film that has been considered to be Reed's masterpiece:

I still consider it as one of the best movies I've ever seen and a film which made me want to pursue this career more than anything else...I always dreamt of doing things of this sort or that style. To a certain extent I must say that I somehow perpetuate the ideas of that movie in what I do.[15]

American novelist, essayist and some-time screenwriter Gore Vidal called the film a "near-perfect film" and its screenwriter R. C. Sherriff "one of the few true film auteurs."[16]

Radio adaptation

Odd Man Out was presented on Suspense February 11, 1952. James Mason and his wife Pamela Mason starred in the 30-minute adaptation.[17]

References
  1. "Odd Man Out". The Times. 31 January 1947. p. 4.
  2. "Thrill-type tales choice of British". Los Angeles Times. 7 July 1946. ProQuest 165714120.
  3. "Variety (October 1947)". archive.org. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  4. Crowther, Bosley (24 April 1947). "Odd Man Out (1947) ' Odd Man Out,' British Film in Which James Mason Again Is the Chief Menace, Has Its Premiere at Loew's Criterion".
  5. Coogan, Tim Pat (2003). Ireland in the Twentieth Century. London: Random House. p. 334. ISBN 9780099415220..
  6. "John Graham". The Treason Felony Blog. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  7. Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). The IRA. London: Macmillan. p. 178.
  8. Burton, Richard (24 June 1971). Richard Burton Diaries.
  9. 'BBC seeks stars of Belfast film noir', BBC News 23 February 2007
  10. 'Filming locations for Odd Man Out The Internet Movie Database
  11. Rogers, Steve. Soldier in the Snow: A Look at the Making of Odd Man Out, Its Key Players and Critical Recognition. (Network, 2006).
  12. "Monthly Film Bulletin review". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  13. "JAMES MASON 1947 FILM FAVOURITE". The Irish Times. Dublin, Ireland. 2 January 1948. p. 7.
  14. Moss 1987, p. 146.
  15. Cronin 2005, pp. 159, 189.
  16. Vidal,Gore. "Screening History - The William Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilisation 1991".(Harvard University Press).
  17. Kirby, Walter (10 February 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 38. Retrieved 2 June 2015 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources
  • Cronin, Paul, ed. (2005). Roman Polanski: Interviews. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-800-5.
  • Moss, Robert F. (1987). The Films of Carol Reed. New York City, New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-05984-8.
  • Jerry Vermilye The Great British Films, Citadel Press, 1978, pp. 106–109 ISBN 0-8065-0661-X
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