Directed by Carol Reed • 1947 • United Kingdom
Starring James Mason, Kathleen Ryan, Robert Newton
Taking place largely over the course of one tense night, Carol Reed’s psychological noir, set in an unnamed Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con leading a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves (Kathleen Ryan) searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker (who would collaborate again on THE THIRD MAN) create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself.
Up Next in Noir
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Coup de torchon
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1981 • France
Starring Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre MarielleAn inspired rendering of Jim Thompson’s pulp novel POP. 1280, Bertrand Tavernier’s COUP DE TORCHON deftly transplants the story of an inept police chief turned heartless killer and his...
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Take Aim at the Police Van
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1960 • Japan
At the beginning of Seijun Suzuki's taut and twisty whodunit, a prison truck is attacked and a convict inside murdered. The penitentiary guard on duty, Daijiro (Michitaro Mizushima), is accused of negligence and suspended, only to take it upon himself to ...
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Pigs and Battleships
Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1962 • Japan
Starring Jitsuko Yoshimura, Yoko Minamida, Hiroyuki NagatoA dazzling, unruly portrait of postwar Japan, PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS details, with escalating absurdity, the desperate power struggles between small-time gangsters in the port town of Yokosuka. Sho...
