ODD MAN OUT (1947). Directed by Carol Reed. Starring James Mason. Johnny McQueen (James Mason) is the head of his cell of an unnamed subversive political organization (presumably the IRA) in Northern Ireland. He has painstakingly planned the robbery of a mill to finance his organization’s activities, but after time spent in prison, as well as six months in hiding after his escape, his men express their concerns that he is in no shape to participate in the robbery. Nevertheless, he decides to lead the robbery himself, but after it goes wrong, he is left alone and severely wounded in the back-alleys of the city. As he hallucinates and weakly tries to make his way back to safety, he comes across an assortment of characters and situations. Meanwhile, his friends and loved ones search the city for him, hoping to come to his aid in time as a gigantic police manhunt closes in on him. There are three types of noir films worth watching. The first type consists of those films that perfectly marry the trademark stylistic elements of noir with a strong plot, great dialogue, acting, and so forth. The second type consists of films with a serviceable or even lackluster expression of the stylistic elements, but a fantastic plot. The third type consists of films that perfectly capture one or more of the genre’s stylistic elements, but don’t have much going for them in the way of things like plot, dialogue, and acting. In my own estimation, Odd Man Out fits pretty squarely in this third category. Enormous credit should be given to Robert Krasker’s cinematography and Carol Reed’s vision for their ability to capture haunting, yet strangely-poetic images of the city’s dirty, cold, damp streets at night (the city is unnamed in the film, but the majority was filmed in West Belfast, with some scenes also being filmed in London). It’s the stuff that all noir strives for, and this film has been coasting on the good will of their success at it since the day it came out, in my opinion. The rest of the film does not have much to offer. The plot itself is not only pretty bare-bones, but also requires some stretching of the imagination at some points. For example, the viewer must take it with a grain of salt that a visually fit man can be so out of shape after prison and time in hiding that just taking a few steps outside makes him start hallucinating and can paralyze him into inaction. The acting is serviceable for its day, but is somewhat dated by modern standards. I want to say that James Mason was well cast and performed well in the role, but since the majority of his role involved being passed out in city streets and alleys, I’m hesitant to definitively say so. The film’s dialogue wasn’t particularly riveting, in my estimation, at least not enough to balance out the simple plot. Additionally, all the dialogue was delivered in an often unintelligible Irish brogue, which added to the film’s legitimacy, but made me wish that the South Korean import copy of the film that I was able to acquire for a reasonable price had English subtitles. Additionally, the score was a bit heavy-handed, and would probably be considered cheesy by modern standards. A film such as this would probably have been better off using the natural sounds of the streets and the city at night as the primary soundtrack. Overall, Odd Man Out had moments of true cinematographic brilliance, but was not riveting or consistently entertaining. I found it to be a chore to watch it all the way through. I can’t say that I can wholeheartedly recommend this film, but I also don’t want to dismiss it entirely. Unless you believe that you will be particularly receptive to it, I’d suggest perhaps watching the setup, and then fast forwarding through all of the scenes that take don’t take place out-doors at night. You’ll catch the best parts of the film and will probably still understand the basics of what is going on. I’m attaching a Youtube link to the entire film if you want to try it. I seem to be in the minority on this one though. It has an impressive 100/87 score on Rotten Tomatoes, won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film in 1948, was nominated for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1947, and was nominated for a Best Film Editing Oscar in 1948. Additionally, Roman Polanski has repeatedly cited it as his favorite film and argues that it is superior to Carol Reed’s acknowledged masterpiece, The Third Man. So while I was disappointed, you may love it. -MOJO HAND https://youtube/watch?v=WY7BIcV8WNE
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 18:25:06 +0000
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