OVERLOOKED FILM: ODD MAN OUT (1947)

 Elizabeth Foxwell, at The Bunburyist, reminds us of the 50th anniversary of novelist and screenwriter R. C. Sherriff's (1896-1975) death.   Sherriff wrote his first play (A Hitch in the Proceedings, 1921) to help his rowing club to buy a new boat.  His seventh play, Journey's End, 1927, starred a young Lawrence Olivier and had a two-year run; the 2007 revival won both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk award; Sherriff novelized the play in 1930.  Among his other novels was The Hopkins Manuscript (1939), a science fiction novel about the cataclysm when the moon collides with the Earth; critics were quick to point out the influence of H. G. Wells, but neglected to mention similar works such as Hector Servadac by Jules Verne, o the more recent When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer.  As a screenwriter, Sherriff wrote or co-wrote many of today's classic films, including The Invisible Man, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (nominated for an Academy Award), The Four Feathers, That Hamilton Woman, Stand By for Action, No Highway in the Sky, The Dam Busters (nominated for a BAFTA Award), and The Night My Number Came Up (nominated for a BAFTA award).

One of his most celebrated films was 1947's Odd Man Out, directed by Carroll Reed and starring James Mason. Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan.  The movie won the first Bafta Award for Best British Film, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best film Editing.  The film, set in Belfast, follows a wounded Nationalist leader attempting to evade police following a botched robbery.  the film eerily prefigures Orson Welles's 1949 movie The Third Man.  It was based on the 1945 novel by F. L. Green; the source novel was later used for the 1969 Sidney Poitier movie The Lost Man.

The film has been called "Reed's masterpiece."   Critic Marc Connelly wrote the movie was "hailed as a masterpiece by many critics and a box office hit -- at least in Europe, where Reed had gauged the mood of postwar despondency with caliper-like accuracy."

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVpuuoSFGeg