In an outstanding performance which he himself considered the best of his career, James Mason stars as Johnny McQueen, an IRA fugitive. Months of hiding out in a safe house have taken their toll on his mental health and cause him to botch a bank robbery undertaken to raise funds for the IRA in which he believes so passionately. A cashier is killed and he sustains serious wounds, forcing him to stagger deliriously through the snow-filled streets of Belfast meeting a succession of people who help or hinder him as a manhunt gets underway. Odd Man Out is remarkable in its sympathetic dramatisation of an IRA story for British and international audiences. A triumph of style from Carol Reed – who would make The Third Man two years later – it was deemed Best Film at the British Academy Awards in 1947. Alongside Mason, Odd Man Out features outstanding performances from its Irish cast of Cyril Cusack, Kathleen Ryan and the remarkable Abbey veteran, F. J. McCormick.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn.