Odd Man Out
Capsule by Jonathan Rosenbaum From the Chicago Reader
A wounded Irish revolutionary (James Mason at his near best) on the run in Belfast encounters a cross section of human responses--self-interest, indifference, empathy, and charity--in this arty 1946 English thriller directed by Carol Reed and adapted by F.L. Green and R.C. Sherriff from Green's novel. This may be Reed's most pretentious film, but it also happens to be one of his very best, beautifully capturing the poetry of a city at night (with black-and-white cinematography by Robert Krasker that's within hailing distance of Gregg Toland and Stanley Cortez's work with Orson Welles). It also has a splendid cast--including Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan, F.J. McCormick, Cyril Cusack, and Dan O'Herlihy--that wrings the utmost, and then some, out of the quasi-allegorical material. 115 min.
