Prepare to be Overwhelmed! See Carol Reed's First Masterpiece, Odd Man Out (1947), Free, Uncut, and Without Commercial Interruption, at the WEJB/NSU Theater, Plus Four-Minute and 26-Minute Suites of William Alwyn's Powerful Score

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

James Mason is Johnny McQueen, the leader of the Belfast chapter of the IRA. He broke out of prison eight months ago, and spent the past six months holed up in the house of a aged widow supporter, whose pretty daughter has fallen in love with him, planning a payroll heist, to refill the IRA's supplies. But he has not so much as touched the girl's hand. And things are not right with Johnny, which he has been unable to hide from his younger gangmates. And yet, he feels obliged to lead the robbery.

Odd Man Out - opening score (with maybe a little Carmina Burana)

essx22: 5,568 views May 22, 2012
"To celebrate the release of Odd Man Out on 18th June on Blu-Ray (Carol Reed's underrated masterpiece), here is William Alwyns magnificent opening score. This is a re-recording of the score as the original was destroyed in a fire. This version is available on Chandos movie records ref CHAN9243 (London Philharmonic with Richard Hickox conducting)

"A haunting yet lyrical masterpiece about a doomed fugitive, Odd Man Out is Carol Reed's breakthrough film as a director after a long, somehow undistinguished career. He followed this success with two other classics in British cinema, The Fallen Idol, and arguably his greatest film, The Third Man.

"In one of his greatest performance of a long and illustrious career, James Mason plays Johnny McQueen, an IRA leader who breaks out of jail and plans a payroll holdup of a mill in Belfast to fund his underground operations.

"Though no commercially popular at the box office, the film quickly won worldwide plaudits and established Reed as an internationally renowned filmmaker. Reed followed this picture with two other masterpieces, The Fallen Idol, in 1949, and The Third Man with Orson Welles in 1950.





Odd Man Out - A Suite (William Alwyn - 1946)





""@grega7323 I first saw this movie on Turner Classics Movies. For me, it was this movie that gave me my introduction to William Alwyn's music. I love this score and it prompted me to seek out more of his music and I have NOT been disappointed."


N.S.: I had the identical experience tonight. Red Eddie Muller broadcast the movie tonight on Noir Alley. I had seen it over 50 years ago on local TV, and had very fond memories of it, and I'd seen Reed's other masterpieces (The Fallen Idol, also 50-odd years ago, and The Third Man, which I've since seen a number of times, including only a year or two ago).

It turned out that my fond memories were inaccurate, but that's fine, because I got to experience the picture anew. During the last 15-20 minutes, I started to notice Alwyn's moving score, and by the end, I was overwhelmed, though not simply by his music.

I have seen many brilliant, moving pictures in my life, but I can't recall feeling so emotionally overwhelmed at the end of any others. And despite James Mason's brilliance, [deleted for surprise] stole the picture.


Now, everyone, watch and/or download this masterpiece before the KK come for it. I know, there are several downloads of the entire picture presently at youtube, but they could all be gone in a whisper. A few years ago, someone put up a download, and a few months later, it, too, was gone. The KK (Kopyright Kops) had struck!


Odd Man Out (1947): The Entire Picture: 1:51





The WEJB/NSU Theater, 1896-1981:

The Haunted Castle: George Melies (1896);

Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902);

The Great Train Robbery (1903);

The Wizard of Oz (1910);

C.B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man (1914);

D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915);

D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages (1916);

Harry Carey and John “Jack” Ford’s Straight Shooting (1917), the First Feature-Length, “Cheyenne Harry” Western;

Charlie Chaplin’s Shoulder Arms (1918);

The Outlaw and His Wife (1918), Starring and Directed by Victor Sjöström (Seastrom);

Starring “Jack”: See the 1920 Silent Picture Classic of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;

Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920);

Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920);

D. W. Griffith’s Way Down East (1920);

F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1921);

The Kid (1921), Charlie Chaplin’s First Feature as Director;

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s First Pictures Featuring the Evil Genius, Dr. Mabuse: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, Teil I (Dr. Mabuse, the Player, Part I); and

Dr. Mabuse, Teil II: Inferno (Dr. Mabuse, Inferno, Part II, both 1922, released one month apart) with English subtitles;

James Cruze’s The Covered Wagon (1923);

John Ford’s The Iron Horse (1924);

Charlie, in The Gold Rush (1925);

Lon Chaney, in The Phantom of the Opera (1925);

King Vidor, Laurence Stallings, and Harry Behn’s The Big Parade (1925), Starring Gilbert and Adore!

Buster Keaton’s The General (1926);

John Ford’s 1926 Western, 3 Bad Men;

Barrymore and Astor in Don Juan (1926);

When a Man Loves (1927), Starring “Jack” and Dolores Costello;

Josef von Sternberg and Ben Hecht’s Underworld (1927), the First American Gangster Picture;

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1927);

“Wild Bill” Wellman’s Restored, Classic Silent Picture, Wings (1927), One of the First Two Best Picture Oscar Winners;

F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927, One of the First Two Best Picture Oscar Winners);

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s Dystopian Science Fiction Epic, Metropolis (1927), the Greatest S/F Picture Ever, Plus Its Soundtrack Suite;

Frank Borzage and Austin Strong’s Seventh Heaven (1927);

Garbo and Gilbert in Love (1927);

Samson Raphaelson, Alfred A. Cohn, Jack Jarmuth and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer (1927), the First-Ever Talkie, Starring Al Jolson, by Warner Brothers;

King Vidor’s The Crowd 1928;

Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928);

Dorothy Scarborough, Frances Marion, and Victor Sjöström's ("Seastrom") 1928 silent, The Wind (with additional videos showing Miss Gish's introduction, Robert Osborne's intro and outro, and visual highlights)

Bessie Smith in St. Louis Blues (talkie, short, 1929);

See Louise Brooks in G.W. Pabst’s world-famous silent, Pandora’s Box (1929);

See Louise Brooks in Pabst's Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929);

See John Wayne, in His First Starring Role in an “A” Picture, Raoul Walsh’s Western Epic Talky, The Big Trail (1930)”;

Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou’s First Talkie: M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931) (M: A City Searches for a Murderer);

Paul Robeson in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (talkie, 1933);

"John Wayne Movie: See over 3 Hours of Foreign Legion Action! Classic Early 1930s Serial, The Three Musketeers;

The Man Who Knew too Much (1934): The Original Version of the Early Hitchcock Classic;

John Ford’s Judge Priest (1934), Starring Will Rogers, with Hattie McDaniel;

The Fighting Westerner (1935);

Kate Hepburn in the Super Chief’s Quality Street (1937);

Cary Grant and Roz Russell in Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, and Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday (1940);

Zero’s Since You Went Away (1944);

Orson Welles’ The Stranger (1946);

The Lethal Lure (1946);

William Dieterle’s A Portrait of Jennie (1948);

Jules Dassin, Albert Malz, and Malvin Wald’s The Naked City (1948), Plus Music;

Pierre Chenal and Richard Wright's Native Son (1951);

Sam Fuller’s Pickup on South Street (1953);

Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954);

R.G. Springsteen and Montgomery Pittman’s Come Next Spring (1956);

Robert Wise and Abraham Polonsky’s Odds against Tomorrow (1959);

Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966);

See Geraldine Page in Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (1966, TV movie);

Lee Marvin as Sergeant Ryker (1963/1968); and

Paul Newman, in Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981) (exclusive review); The movie.