Odd Man Out

"Close the door when I'm gone, and forget me"

Comparisons will inevitably be made between this film and Carol Reed's more famous British film noir, The Third Man. Both are largely preoccupied with shadows, in both thematic and aesthetic senses, and use the fresh post-war decay of Europe as breeding ground for a very British take on the film noir genre. Featuring a fantastic score, and starting with an aerial shot of industrial Belfast, Odd Man Out captures the essence of a city and pours it into the shape of a metaphor for one man's painful purgatory. Odd Man Out is also memorable for being one of the earliest films to feature and deal with themes pertaining to the IRA.

Johnny McQueen (James Mason) is an IRA man who's recently escaped gaol. He's a hero to his community and still very much loyal to the IRA, but gaol has paid its price on him and he now very much wants to pursue less violent means for his cause. In true noir fashion, when Johnny embarks on a desperate bank heist Fate puts its pressure on him. He gets shot and kills an innocent man in return, and is left at large in the city after his comrades scramble to safety. Johnny is a man who'll never be free, mortally wounded, delirious, and a fugitive from the law twice-over. It's a turn of events that will lead to the undoing of his entire cell, and Johnny becomes the focal point of a city-wide manhunt, wanted by the police, wanted by his comrades, and sought after by both his girl and his priest. The police want him for justice, his girl is motivated by love, and the priest is after his soul. Who will get to him first? And will they get to him before he dies?

The film starts so casually, like the calm before the storm. Johnny's IRA cell has this gentle, cheerful meeting over cups of tea that contrasts with the severity of their plans, and from here it all goes wrong and becomes so tragic and heavy. Johnny is already a man who hasn't done the time for his crimes, but when he kills an innocent citizen during the heist it puts into a living hell. Due to his wounds he's literally in a world of pain, cast adrift in an unforgiving city and without a friend. His conscience haunts him, appearing in beer bubbles and through halucinatory flashbacks, and being so near death it begins to feel like Purgatory. For Johnny, the whole of Belfast becomes his Purgatory - a precarious state where rival forces vie for Johnny's mortal soul. In the last act the film takes a turn for the bizarre, introducing a handful of colourful characters (a mad painter, a wretched budgie-man and a disgraced ? doctor) who usher in an extended metaphor about birds with broken wings. It becomes almost absurd, with some of these new characters desiring control of Johnny for stranger reasons and representing his further descent into doom.

I think Odd Man Out also stands out because of the moral complexity behind the plot. The IRA, whilst a central part of the story, are mostly referred to as just The Organisation, owing to the taboo nature of discussing such a terrorist group on screen. Surprisingly, they're portrayed as mostly good-natured knockabout lads. Unsurprisingly, very little of their ideology is touched upon. Mason's Johnny McQueen is a flawed hero... he commits a grave sin in killing a man, but so willingly pays an inner pennance for it that it's impossible for the audience to see him as a villain. The central moral dilemma that arises from this is thus; what happens when a good man kills an innocent? Reed works very hard to keep the dilemma in an objective light. A policeman remarks at one point, "in my profession there is no good or bad, only innocence and guilt", reminding us that the concept of right and wrong is a subjective human construction. In contrast to this, in case the audience leans too far in a direction of acquittal for McQueen, we're also reminded that "He's killed a man and must pay the penalty".

Reed uses oppressive camera angles, speeds and other techniques to convey Johnny's discomfort and exposure at being stranded in the city. Reed is a real master of shadows, casting Belfast as a claustrophobic city of darkness, fog and endless stonework. If we ask ourselves the question, what is a shadow? Then the imagery used by Reed becomes starkly symbolic. A shadow is when someone blocks out light... light and dark are symbolic of good and evil, and while the audience is kept from looking at characters in these terms, these men are both metaphorically and literally menaced by shadows. They tread the line between good and evil.

DIRECTOR: Carol Reed
WRITER/SOURCE: F. L. Green and R. C. Sherriff
KEY ACTORS: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, R0hert Beatty, Dan O'Herlihy, F. J. McCormick, Kathleen Ryan, William Hartnell

RELATED TEXTS
- As mentioned earlier, Reed's other film noir masterpiece is The Third Man. See also the film he made between these two film noirs - The Fallen Idol.
- Other early films about 'the troubles'; The Informer and Beloved Enemy.
- For a more modern perspective on the IRA in Belfast, see The Boxer, Four Days in July and Some Mother's Son.
- See also Night and the City, a similar British film noir of a wretched individual at the mercy of a city.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated for Best Film Editing.
BAFTAs - won Best British Film.
Venice Film Festival - nominated for Golden Lion.