Carol Reed

Odd Man Out

Odd Man Out

Taking place largely over the course of one tense night, Carol Reed’s psychological noir, set in an unnamed Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con leading a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves (Kathleen Ryan) searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker (who would collaborate again on The Third Man) create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1947
  • 116 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #754

Special Features

  • New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with British cinema scholar John Hill, author of Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture and Politics
  • Postwar Poetry, a new short documentary about the film
  • New interview with music scholar Jeff Smith about composer William Alwyn and his score
  • Home, James, a 1972 documentary featuring actor James Mason revisiting his hometown
  • Radio adaptation of the film from 1952, starring Mason and Dan O’Herlihy
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

    New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with British cinema scholar John Hill, author of Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture and Politics
  • Postwar Poetry, a new short documentary about the film
  • New interview with music scholar Jeff Smith about composer William Alwyn and his score
  • Home, James, a 1972 documentary featuring actor James Mason revisiting his hometown
  • Radio adaptation of the film from 1952, starring Mason and Dan O’Herlihy
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

    New cover by Eric Skillman
Odd Man Out
Cast
James Mason
Johnny McQueen
Robert Newton
Lukey
Kathleen Ryan
Kathleen Sullivan
Cyril Cusack
Pat
F. J. McCormick
Shell
William Hartnell
Fencie
Fay Compton
Rosie
Denis O'Dea
Inspector
W. G. Fay
Father Tom
Maureen Delaney
Theresa O’Brien
Elwyn Brook-Jones
Tober
Robert Beatty
Dennis
Dan O'Herilhy
Nolan
Kitty Kirwan
Grannie
Beryl Measor
Maudie
Roy Irving
Murphy
Joseph Tomelty
Gin Jimmy
Arthur Hambling
Tom
Ann Clery
Maureen
Eddie Byrne
Policeman
Credits
Director
Carol Reed
Produced by
Carol Reed
Associate producer
Phil C. Samuel
Screenplay
F. L. Green
Screenplay
R. C. Sherriff
Based on the novel by
F. L. Green
Director of photography
Robert Krasker
Editor
Fergus McDonell
Music composed by
William Alwyn
Conducted by
Muir Mathieson
Played by
The London Symphony Orchestra
Production decor
Roger Furse
Art director
Ralph Brinton
Camera operator
Russell Thomson
Sound recordists
A. Fisher
Sound recordists
Desmond Dew
Sound editor
Harry Miller
Production manager
Frank Bevis
Assistant director
Mark Evans
Continuity
Olga Brooks
Backings
E. Lindegaard
Irish advisers
Cecil Ford
Irish advisers
Joseph Tomelty
Special effects
Stanley Grant
Special effects
Bill Warrington

Current

Three Reasons: Odd Man Out
Three Reasons: Odd Man Out
Those are our three reasons. What are yours?
Odd Man Out: Death and the City
Odd Man Out: Death and the City

Before he turned Vienna into a labyrinth of shadows with The Third Man, Carol Reed brought film noir to Belfast for this stylishly fatalistic tale of a man caught up in political violence.

By Imogen Sara Smith

Carol Reed in Chicago

Repertory Picks

Carol Reed in Chicago

The Gene Siskel Film Center screens Carol Reed’s stark psychological thriller Odd Man Out, which stars James Mason as an ex-convict who plots a robbery to fund his rebel organization.

Bruce Beresford’s Top 10
Bruce Beresford’s Top 10

Bruce Beresford is the director of more than twenty-five features, including Breaker Morant (1980), Tender Mercies (1983), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Mister Johnson (1990), and Black Robe (1992).