Odd Man Out

Northern Ireland: Johnny McQueen (James Mason), leader of a Northern Irish underground organisation, is shot during a raid on a mill and kills a cashier. Wounded, he wanders through Belfast for one long night. The people he meets, among them a bird seller, a painter and a priest, want to betray him, use him or save him. Only Kathleen (Kathleen Ryan) stands by him and wants to get him out of the country... Reed is less interested in politics than in guilt, grace and loneliness. Johnny’s feverish delirium becomes a Passion story, the city a moral labyrinth. Mason’s almost wordless portrayal of the dying man is among his finest performances. With its expressionist compositions of light and shadow (cinematography: Robert Krasker), the film combines the poetic realism of Marcel Carné with the aesthetics of film noir. It is regarded as a high point of British post-war cinema and was the first film to win the BAFTA for Best British Film. It also paved the way for Reed’s masterpiece “The Third Man” (1949). “The film’s intelligent dramatic conception is realised in a dense and gripping manner through outstanding photography and a compelling lead actor.” (Lexikon des Internationalen Films)