Much to like in this one, including a great finale, but the subplot with the artist was so bizarre and exaggerated that it really turned me off the film.

Another knockout of an experience courtesy of Carol Reed. As in Reed's Fallen Idol, a deceptively simple plot is turned into an engrossing, powerful exploration of what makes us tick, and why we do the things we do.

Odd Man Out is nominally about an IRA (in all but name) leader who, after getting separated from his crew during an operation, wanders the streets of Belfast wounded, exhausted, alone and with a murder on his conscience. I say "nominally" because while James Mason's Johnny McQueen is a sympathetic, tragic figure, the film is more concerned with the character of the city itself, or really, its population. At every turn, McQueen meets people in a position to help him, turn him away, or turn him in (among them a young William Hartnell). What will they choose? Though it sometimes feels more episodic than I'd want it to be, it does paint the picture of a world where the citizens may well side with the terrorists against the authorities. Though no overt mention is made of the IRA, or of the issues surrounding the conflict in Northern Ireland, it's in the mind of everyone we meet. I grew a little listless in the second act, but the third really brought it home. A memorable ending to say the least. This is from Carol Reed, the same director who gave us The Third Man, so I don't need to add that it has impeccable black and white cinematography, do I?