the audience applauded

One of my all time favorites.

Good concept, poorly executed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Picaresque film that ebbs and flows. Well-made but at times ebbs for too long. Strangely, though Mason central to plot he does not occupy the screen. It is those around him that the film concentrates on. F.J. McCormick steals the show as Shell and Robert Newton also as an artist wanting to catch the look of death on canvas.

Ignoring the rather unlikely IRA meeting over tea and biscuits at Granny's house prior to a planned armed raid, the first half of this film is great. The pace is furious, the exchanges between the men and women believable and the dark and dismal Belfast streets look amazing. Almost noir like as the film progresses with tension and passions high, we are swept along as road vehicles swerve and skid and 'real' children play in the street and plead for 'pennies' or 'fags'. Mason is splendid and he has good support with spirited direction and a cinematographer enjoying himself. And then it stops. I imagine just so we can get our breath back and await the next surge but I am starting to wonder just where the film can go. And it goes nowhere. It slips into silliness and then into farce - when Robert Newton gives us his broad and knowing sea captain's wink you know its all over but its a shame and the final dip into sentimentality, telegraphed at the very start of the film, is, well the opposite of 'icing on the cake'.

Atmospheric and visually impressive story that is metaphoric and at times mesmerizing. Most film buffs are bewitched by this and rant endlessly about its greatness and maybe so. It sure is complex and uncompromising in a lot of ways but it takes a great amount of effort on the viewers part to sustain the wonderment for such a lengthy film. It could have been just as powerful and not as plodding and heavy going if it was a bit thinner. The great hypnotic and hallucinatory images and the stylish touches keep things together albeit at a very slow pace and there are some interesting and some irritating characters. Wildly cinematic allegories and parables aside, it is unapologetically European and pure film noir to be ethnocentric, is almost always American. The British efforts somehow seem more maudlin and self conscious and their urban milieu is inevitably physically war-torn rather than pathological and therefore a separation and categorization of of the two types of the noir style is necessary.The cultural separation is significant and therefore this should be labeled as an excellent example of foreign film-noir.

This is a remarkable film released in 1947. James Mason is amazing when you consider how few lines he actually speaks. The rest of the cast is extraordinary - Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan, F.J. McCormick and W.G Fay among others.The scene where Mason is hallucinating and sees the image of Father Tom is unforgettable. From his throne-like chair he says, "We repeated the words without thinking what they meant. But I remember when I was a boy. I remember when I was a child. I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things". Just incredible.And the tear wrenching end - Kathleen: "It's all right Johnny. I'm here". Johnny: "Is it far"? Kathleen: "It's a long way, Johnny. But I'm going with you".This film was followed in 1948 by "The Fallen Idol" and in 1949 "The Third Man". Three of Carol Reed's best films and perhaps three of the best films ever made.