Odd Man Out

Wounded during a robbery, a gunman attempts to escape police in Carol Reed's moody Irish thriller, starring James Mason.

James Mason is the perfect quarry for a Carol Reed masterpiece, snaking through the city in what becomes a confrontation with himself. The actor ignites early and never burns out, meeting the crazed and the corrupt as justice closes in. In support, W.G Fay's caring priest impresses, as does Robert Newton's painter, obsessed with capturing Mason's death mask.

It's a feast for the eyes, with photography and Roger Furse and Ralph Binton's production design providing the vivid, realistic and yet clearly very controlled, 'poetic' feel that Reed was striving for and which anticipates his subsequent films, Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949). Odd Man Out works as an excellent double bill with Yann Demange's 2014 Belfast pursuit thriller, '71.