Odd Man Out

11/2/2013

That's the duty of all of us. Johnny McQueen is an IRA leader who breaks out of prison and for 6 months hides out at the house of adoring Kathleen. Here he plots a robbery of a Belfast mill to fund his underground organisation, the robbery doesn't go to plan and Johnny kills a man in a struggle outside the mill, he himself is shot and fails to make the getaway with his accomplices... If ever there was a film that defines the statement of film on canvass then this is it, it's a gorgeous piece of work relying on striking imagery and dialogue driven smartness to realise the demise of Johnny McQueen. We watch (and listen intensely) as Johnny lurches through the back streets of Belfast knowing he is dying, he has most of the city looking for him, be it the law, or friends, or those that w

7/7/2022

This is very much an example of less is more from Carol Reed. James Mason is super as ("Johnny") who leads an IRA cell that decides to rob a textile mill to secure continued funding for their operations. As they make good their escape, he is shot, seriously wounded and has to try to secure medical care whilst being pursued by a determined constabulary and by his loving gal "Kathleen" (Kathleen Ryan). What helps this film to stand out, it that it attempts to deal in a far more sophisticated fashion with the goings-on, brutal at times from both sides, as the net tightens around the fugitive. The characters - especially a superb Robert Newton ("Lukey") - add oodles to the gritty realism of this struggle to escape and to pursue, as does the eery Belfast photography and the snow. How effective