Odd Man Out(1947)
Universal Pictures Apr 23, 1947
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
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Current Showtimes
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- Thu May 21
- Fri May 22
- Sat May 23
- Sun May 24
- Mon May 25
- Tue May 26
- Wed May 27
Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- The film's opening intertitle reads:"This story is told against a background of political unrest in a city of Northern Ireland. It is not concerned with the struggle between the law and an illegal organization, but only with the conflict in the hearts of the people when they become unexpectedly involved."The city and the organization are never explicitly named, but the protagonist, Johnny McQueen (James Mason), is the IRA-like group's leader in the city (presumably Belfast). Johnny has been hiding the past six months since his escape from prison in a house occupied by Kathleen Sullivan (Kathleen Ryan) - who loves him - and her grandmother.Johnny has been ordered to rob a mill to obtain funds for his nationalist IRA group. His men, however, are a bit uneasy about his fitness for the task, having noticed a change in him since his escape; he has expressed his new belief that negotiation might achieve their goals more effectively than violence. Dennis (Robert Beatty) offers to take his place, but Johnny turns him down.The next day, Johnny, Nolan (Dan O'Herlihy) and Murphy break into the mill office and hold the clerks at gunpoint to demand the money. As they leave with the money, Johnny is confronted by an armed cashier. Johnny is shot in his upper left arm before he returns fire and kills the cashier. The getaway driver, Pat (Cyril Cusack), drives off at high speed before Johnny is fully inside the getaway car. Johnny falls off. While his confederates argue about what to do, Johnny gets up and dashes away.Upon arrival back at Kathleen's house, Dennis orders the others to report to their headquarters. Along the way that evening, however, the trio arouse the suspicion of the local Ulster police, out in force on a manhunt for the robbers. They are pursued, but get away. Pat and Nolan stop off at Theresa O'Brien's place; Murphy does not trust her and goes elsewhere. She betrays the pair to the authorities. As they leave, they are both gunned down after they start shooting.Dennis finds Johnny wounded in the street, but the police show up nearby. Dennis is captured after drawing them away.Now alone, Johnny makes his way toward Kathleen's place, but collapses in the street. Passersby Maureen and Maudie take him home, thinking he has been struck by a passing lorry. When they discover who he is, Johnny departs before they can call the police and gets into a parked hansom taxicab. "Gin" Jimmy (Joseph Tomelty), the cab driver, comes out and starts looking for a fare, unaware he has a wanted man for a passenger. When he finds out, he drops Johnny off as quickly as he can before driving away.Shell (F. J. McCormick), a local Unionist, spots Gin dumping the now nearly unconscious fugitive. A poor man, Shell goes to Catholic priest Father Tom (W. G. Fay), hoping for a financial reward. By chance, Kathleen arrives shortly afterward, looking for help. Father Tom persuades Shell to fetch Johnny. Shell, while dropping off his pet bird at home, has to fend off another resident, (the possibly mentally unstable) painter Lukey (Robert Newton), who wants him to pose some more for him.As night falls over the city, Johnny revives and stumbles into a private booth in a crowded bar. Proprietor Fencie (William Hartnell) recognizes him; wanting no trouble, he closes his establishment a bit early. He then recruits Shell and the persistent Lukey, who have separately converged on the bar, to take Johnny away in a cab. Over Shell's protests, Lukey takes Johnny back to his studio to paint his portrait. Failed medical student Tober (Elwyn Brook-Jones) tends to Johnny's gunshot wound; successfully removing the bullet and stitching up the wound the best he can. During this, Johnny hallucinates, thinking Father Tom is talking to him. Johnny then speaks aloud (drooling crazily throughout) parts of 1 Corinthians 13, first verse 13 ("When I was a child ..."), then 1-2 ("Though I speak ... and have not charity, I am nothing.").When a sympathetic Catholic police inspector (Denis O'Dea), who had earlier led a search of Kathleen's home and warned her against getting involved with the IRA, shows up to try to get information from Father Tom, Kathleen slips away. She arranges passage on a ship for Johnny to take him out of the country and goes searching for him. Shell starts Johnny toward Father Tom's, then goes ahead and encounters Kathleen. She takes Johnny to the ship, but finds the police closing in. Nearly incoherent from blood loss due to his bullet wound, Johnny is too far gone to see them. When he asks, "Is it far?", Kathleen replies, "It's a long way, Johnny, but I'm coming with you." She then draws a gun and starts firing, forcing the policemen to shoot back, killing them both.
Storyline
- Johnny McQueen, leader of a clandestine Irish organization, has been hiding in the house of Kathleen and her mother, planning a hold-up that will provide his group with the funds needed to continue its activities. During the hold-up, things go sour: Johnny is wounded, cannot make it back to the hideout, and disappears in the back-alleys of Belfast. Immediately, a large-scale man-hunt is launched, and the city is tightly covered by the constabulary, whose chief is intent on capturing Johnny and the other members of the gang. Kathleen sets out in search of Johnny. — Eduardo Casais <eduardo.casais@research.nokia.com> In Northern Ireland, Johnny McQueen's the leader of the IRA. In need of money. Johnny plots a heist to raise funds but the scheme doesn't work as planned and Johnny's wounded and left to fend for himself. The police organise a manhunt, whilst Johnny's gang seeks him out. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil IRA gunman, Johnny McQueen and 3 others rob a textile mill. The robbery goes awry with- Johnny getting wounded. Unable to get away, Johnny spends time trying to find shelter and medical care. The police scour the city looking for him, focusing a good deal of attention on Kathleen, the young woman who loves him. — garykmcd Johnny McQueen, a leader in "The Organization" (aka the IRA), broke out of prison six months ago and has been in hiding at the Belfast home of his friend Kathleen Sullivan since. His first venture outside of the house is a "fundraising" daytime robbery at a mill with some of his associates, a few of them who question Johnny's current fitness in carrying out the robbery solely in his inactivity since his incarceration. The robbery does not go according to plan in large part due to those concerns of his fitness coming to fruition, among other things Johnny being shot in the arm, and his three associates in the robbery, in their escape, leaving a shot Johnny in the middle of the road only to see, from afar, Johnny wander off onto a side street. Both sides in the conflict are in a search for Johnny, who has been suffering from delirium, only exacerbated by the serious gunshot wound, making him less than lucid as he tries to make his way back to Kathleen's. Most of the people who Johnny meets in evading the police know who he is in relation to the robbery, and their actions toward him, while affected by they being pro or anti-organization, are also affected by other motivations, including there being a lucrative reward for his capture. In the process, Kathleen also goes on her own search for Johnny in being in love with him, her goal to get him out of the organization permanently into a new life elsewhere where they can live in peace as life in the organization is first and foremost an allegiance to it. — Huggo
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