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Frederick Laurence Green [1] (1902–1953) was a British writer who had 14 titles published between 1934 and 1952. He is best known for his 1945 novel, Odd Man Out, which was adapted into a film . Born in Portsmouth, on 6 April 1902, [2] Green published his first novel, Julius Penton, in 1934.
Odd Man Out is a 1945 crime thriller novel by the British writer F. L. Green. The novel is set in present-day Northern Ireland and portrays an IRA heist gone wrong. Film adaptation. In 1947 it was made into the British film of the same title directed by Carol Reed and starring James Mason, Kathleen Ryan and Robert Newton.
In Odd Man Out (1947) adapted by Carol Reed from the original 1945 novel by Belfast adopted son F. L. Green (Reed and Green worked on a screenplay, final credit going to British playwright R. C. Sheriff), an armed raid on a linen mill payroll by the IRA and its feverish aftermath adroitly reflects this notion of “looking the other way.” The ...
- Plot
- Production
- Political Context and Censorship
- Reception
- Radio Adaptation
- Sources
- External Links
Irish nationalist 'organisation'member Johnny McQueen has been hiding for six months, since his escape from prison, in a house occupied by Kathleen Sullivan (who has fallen in love with Johnny) and her grandmother. He is ordered to rob a mill but his seclusion makes his men question his fitness; his lieutenant Dennis offers to take his place, but J...
Development
F.L. Green's novel, also used as the basis of the 1969 Sidney Poitier film The Lost Man, was published in 1945. It followed upon wartime action by the IRA in Belfast, in consequence of which Northern Ireland undertook its first and only execution of an Irish Republican, 19-year-old Tom Williams. In the novel, an IRA plot goes horribly wrong when its leader, Johnny Murtah, kills an innocent man, and he is gravely wounded. The source of Green's familiarity with the Belfast IRA at the time is th...
Casting
According to Richard Burton, the lead role was originally offered to Stewart Granger. Burton wrote in his diaries: Aside from Mason, the supporting cast was drawn largely from Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Among the other members of the Organisation are Cyril Cusack, Robert Beatty, and Dan O'Herlihy. On his travels, Johnny meets an opportunistic bird-fancier played by F. J. McCormick, a drunken artist played by Robert Newton, a barman (William Hartnell) and a failed surgeon (Elwyn Brook-Jones). Den...
Filming
The cinematographer was Robert Krasker, in his first film for director Reed, lighting sets designed by Ralph Brinton and Roger Furse. Reed made extensive use of location filming, which was uncommon at the time. Exterior scenes were shot in West Belfast, although some were shot at Broadway Marketin London. The bar set was based on the Crown Bar in Belfast but was a studio set built at D&P Studios in Denham, Buckinghamshire. The duplication was so authentic that tourists in subsequent years wou...
The film did not mention the IRA by name and, like John Ford's The Informer(1935), only "casually touched on the underlying conflict." Both use the backdrop of conflict in Ireland or Northern Ireland to present morality tales designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. The IRA was portrayed as little more than a criminal gang. Politics an...
Critics
Odd Man Outwas "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." New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther praised the performances and the plotting of the early sequences in the film, which he compared favorably to The Informer,but he criticized the subsequent portions of the film, which he described as "fumbled" by shifting attention away from Mason and his motivations to "cry...
Box office
It ranked eighth among more popular movies at the British box office in 1947,and was one of the most successful films ever shown in South America.
Awards
The film received the BAFTA Award for Best British Film in 1948. It was nominated for the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1947, and nominated for a Best Film Editing Oscarin 1948.
Odd Man Out was presented on Suspense 11 February 1952. James Mason and his wife Pamela Masonstarred in the 30-minute adaptation.
Connelly, Mark (2012). The IRA on Film and Television : a History. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., Publishers. ISBN 9780786489619.Cronin, Paul, ed. (2005). Roman Polanski: Interviews. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-800-5.Moss, Robert F. (1987). The Films of Carol Reed. New York City, New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-05984-8.Jerry Vermilye The Great British Films, Citadel Press, 1978, pp. 106–109 ISBN 0-8065-0661-XOdd Man Out at IMDbOdd Man Out at AllMovieOdd Man Out at the TCM Movie DatabaseOdd Man Out at Rotten TomatoesF.L. Green was born on 6 April 1902 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Odd Man Out (1947), The Fugitive (1939) and The Lost Man (1969). He was married to Margaret Edwards. He died on 14 April 1953 in Bristol, England, UK.
- Writer
- April 6, 1902
- F.L. Green
- April 14, 1953
Portsmouth; English novelist; settled in Belfast 1932; novels include Odd Man Out (1945) dealing with IRA raid, filmed in Belfast by Carol Reed in 1947 with James Mason, F. L. McCormick and Cyril Cusack; ...
Overview. F. L. Green. (1902—1953) Quick Reference. (1902–1953), English-born novelist who settled in Belfast in 1932, and achieved success with Odd Man Out (1945), a novel dealing with the flight through Belfast of a wounded IRA man ... From: Green, F [rederick] L [aurence] in The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature » Subjects: Literature
