Odd Man Out

Johnny McQueen (James Mason), a wounded escaped prisoner (and IRA member though this is left unsaid), drags himself through the streets of Belfast after a botched robbery. He wanders among housewives and bartenders, soldiers and street children, priests and drunken painters. His journey through a single winter night has mythical resonance—an odyssey through the borderland between life and death. In his first masterpiece, which James Mason later regarded as his best film, Reed developed what would become his characteristic vision of the city at night: misty beams of light, cobblestones glistening in the rain, huge shadows flitting across walls, long alleys that pierce the screen like tunnels. Though they are influenced by film noir, Reed’s urban nightscapes are never entirely hostile; moments of compassion and humanity shine through the heartlessness and betrayal, like lit windows in dark streets.