The October Man (1947) User Reviews

Goes well with fruitcake and a cup of tea...

[joachimokeefe · 8/10 · 10 February 2006]

Top class British entertainment of the old school, when the UK had a film industry. Atmospheric, edgy plot and direction (for 1947) thanks to Eric Ambler, and lots of period detail of character and setting that come from a world gone by. Plugging the iron into the light socket, for example. You'll laugh, but you'll be rooting for John Mills in the seedy lodging house full of dodgy salesmen, lingerie models and brigadiers' spinster daughters all the way. Mills is often a bit (literally) lightweight in leading roles, but here the character of a vulnerable, sensitive junior scientist fits like a glove. Well worth a rental.

Lights & Shadows

[ilprofessore-1 · 8/10 · 28 March 2008]

This post-war (1947) English psychological thriller directed by Roy Ward Baker is distinguished by its superb photography in deep blacks and brilliant whites by the German-English lighting cameraman Erwin Hillier who had been a camera assistant on Fritz Lang's "M" and Murnau's "Tabu." Hillier uses the expressionistic techniques associated with these German director's film's to create a complex series of highlights and shadows, contrasting high and low angle camera compositions to create a atmosphere of both glossy glamour and terrifying suspense. It's a shame that Hillier and Hitchcock never worked together. What a team they might have made!

They Don't Get Much Better Than This!

[Handlinghandel · 8/10 · 1 August 2007]

The superb John Mills plays a man with a history of emotional imbalance. He moves into a rooming house peopled by the sorts who might be charming in a Barbara Pym novel. Here they are increasingly less charming: There's the classic nosy landlady. There's an elderly resident who begs for more coal on the fire: The way she's written to do this made me think of a leitmotif from an Eliot poem.

There's a homely bachelor; there's an attractive young woman involved with a married man. And, there are assorted eccentrics thrown in as well.

Mills meets Joan Greenwood, she of the dark, husky voice. And a murder takes place.

That's all I will say, lest I give anything at all away: Try hard to see this little beauty of a film, knowing as little of the plot in advance as I did. Indeed, before today, I had never heard of it.

If it were an American film of this period it would be called a film noir. It has all the elements but I don't think I'd call it one. It's a psychological thriller, a mystery.

The secondary roles are cast superbly in every case. It's tense, filled with fascinating characters -- it lacks almost nothing. And the two stars could scarcely be better.

Smart, pretty, and dependable--a crime movie without the extraordinary

[secondtake · 7/10 · 6 April 2011]

The October Man (1947)

A tightly constructed, well acted, moody, night drenched murder mystery. Very British, very good. Is it amazing? No, but it beats old t.v. hands down. I mean, it's a layered, nuanced, gradually evolving story with some real feeling to it. But it's also a packaged affair, neatly imagined and in the ends not a bit surprising. The romance, at least, is satisfying--the couple seems a good match.

Eric Ambler, who wrote and produced, was a high visibility popular author at the time, and you have to assume the movie feels as close to the writer's intentions as possible. Director Roy Ward Baker is only on his second film here, and it shows a natural talent for economy and drama. (He would later direct the Richard Widmark, Marilyn Monroe suspense noir, "Don't Bother to Knock" during a stay in Hollywood.) His most famous film might now be "A Night to Remember" because it was the most complete telling of the Titanic story leading up to Cameron's.

In a seemingly British way, the story here is neatly contained. Agatha Christy comes to mind when the main character enters the hotel where most of the action occurs, and we get to know the small number of residents there, each a distinct type. And when the murder (of course) happens, we are led to suspect this person or that. Or at least we are supposed to. The movie makes the perp all too obvious, even before the crime, so you have to depend on how well the story is told instead of being curious who done it.

And it's well told indeed. The supporting cast, including the love interest, is competent. The leading man, the falsely accused victim of an earlier bus crash, is rather excellent, played by veteran serious actor John Mills. And all the foggy night scenes, and train and train station sections, ought to make those of you nostalgic for old Britain very happy.

A long forgotten British film that is worth a look.

[MIKE-WILSON6 · 13 June 2001]

A wonderful old black and white British film, that has John Mills suffering from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the suspect in a murder mystery, when a girl that he has helped out with some money, has been found dead. Good performances from the whole cast and the audience is kept in suspense up to the final scenes as to weather the murderer will escape.

Atmospheric

[lucyrfisher · 7/10 · 25 October 2014]

I love this film for the atmosphere. It seems to be always October, the dark time of the year, and the cast seem to love wandering about a lonely common at night. John Mills comes out of hospital to live in a residential hotel. The other guests are a motley crew, beautifully played by Joyce Carey and others. Miss Heap, who is always moaning "Miss Selbeeee! Could we have more coal?" Joyce Carey, with her beautiful face which hides a soul that only cares about bridge and gossip. The weedy Mr Pope, who turns out to be rather a good egg. And Miss Newman, the underwear model with the dubious boyfriend. (That camel-hair overcoat is a giveaway.) The hotel is almost a character in its own right with its furnishings unchanged for at least 40 years. John Mills falls for the sister of a colleague, whose family represents normality and thick- headed respectability. She is played by Joan Greenwood, with an unflattering hairdo and unbelievably frumpy clothes. Kay Walsh as the model, with her stash of gin and book on horoscopes, seems much more amusing. I think someone should reinvent residential hotels.

pretty good

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 28 March 2008]

John Mills is the "October Man" in this small 1947 British film costarring Joan Greenwood.

Mills plays Jim Ackland, a man involved in a tragic train accident that killed the child of a friend (actually played by Juliet Mills) he was returning to town. He suffers a fractured skull and is hospitalized for a year, as he has developed some brain damage. He blames himself for the accident and is haunted by it. It's actually not clear if he has actual brain damage - he acts perfectly normal and is totally functional - or has developed psychological problems. He leaves the hospital, takes a room at a boarding house and gets a job. His neighbor in the house is a pretty young woman (Joan Greenwood) who apparently is always having money trouble and possibly traded either downright sex or nookies for money with another resident of the house, Mr. Peachy (Edward Chapman). Meanwhile, she's seeing a married man. So one could say her life is complicated. Attempting to break the ties that bind with Mr. not-so-Peachy, she puts the touch on Jim for 30 pounds, and he writes her a check. The next day she's found dead in the Commons, the crumpled check nearby. Suspicion falls on Jim because of the check, the fact that he wasn't home that night she was killed and because of idle gossip started by Mr. Peachey. Meanwhile, Jim has fallen in love with his coworker's sister; though his old terrors return, he realizes that he needs to keep fighting and clear himself of the murder.

This is a good movie with a superb performance by John Mills and real British atmosphere which lends itself to the story and bumps up the suspense. As someone correctly stated, it is sort of a film noir but really more psychological in nature, which was all the rage after World War II. Very entertaining.

British Noir

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 23 October 2008]

One of the best pieces of acting I've seen John Mills do is in this film The October Man. It takes part of its plot from Laura and part of it from the American film High Wall that starred Robert Taylor.

Mills as he did on so many occasions was the British average Joe who as it happens suffers a traumatic brain injury as a result of a train wreck. He blacks out and comes back with no apparent rhyme or reason and his treating doctor Felix Aylmer says that's likely to go on for some time. No reason though he can't resume normal life and employment.

Which he does and starts living at a boarding house with the usual amount of busybodies. He even gets a relationship of sorts going with both Joan Greenwood and Kay Walsh. But when Walsh turns up murdered, Mills is looking real good for it to Scotland Yard guys Frederick Piper and John Boxer.

Of course Mills didn't do it, but the fascinating thing with The October Man is that we do learn before the end who did do it and that individual confesses to Mills. The perpetrator is also a mentally unstable, but has learned to hide it. And it looks very much as if Mills will not be able to prove his innocence.

The focus of The October Man is on Mills's plight. It's one of the best pieces of acting I've ever seen from John Mills. He does you really do think he's about to get into a jackpot not of his own doing.

The October Man was very much influenced by Hollywood noir, although I'm sure our friends across the pond could say our noir films were influenced by this. It's a very moody cinematographic piece with expert use of shadow and lights. And John Mills is heartbreaking in the role.

Don't miss this if it is ever broadcast again on this side of the Atlantic.

High quality--story a little loose is all.

[peru1-595-630106 · 7/10 · 23 February 2013]

Well filmed and acted. The cinematography is first class and enjoyable.

I found the story unfortunately a little too obvious (you know who did it immediately) and that it will be resolved in some way in the letter the murdered woman sent.

Also you have to suspend disbelief on numerous things...that the police wouldn't search the dead woman's room carefully (and find her love letters) is the most obvious one. There were others (it sure is easy to escape from British cops) but for what movies do you not have to suspend your disbelief a little?

It is too bad they couldn't have sharpened up the story just a bit because all the other values are excellent...acting superb camera work etc...

It rates a 7--it is leagues better than most of the quota British films of the 50s.

RECOMMEND

A dandy mystery that is filled with tension and drama

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 30 July 2007]

The film begins with John Mills on a bus, trying to entertain a friend's daughter. Suddenly, as the bus nears a train, it loses control and slams into a wall--killing the girl and leaving Mills with a skull injury so severe he was hospitalized for a year. During that time, he became very depressed and tried to kill himself. However, now that the year has passed, he's discharged and the staff is concerned about his ability to make it on the outside.

At first, Mills is very tentative around others and tends to keep to himself at the boarding house while working at a local chemical plant. However, over time he seemed to be coming out of his depression and began dating his boss' sister. Life certainly looks good for him when out of the blue, one of the fellow lodgers at the boarding house is murdered. Due to many coincidences he is accused of the crime. With his head injury and past emotional instability he's a natural suspect though he didn't have any reason for killing her.

Much of the rest of the film concerns Mills trying in vain to prove his innocence. The problem is that the police think it's an open and shut case and they refuse to take him seriously--leaving him no choice but to go on the run to prove his innocence.

There are many excellent twists and turns (particularly when he discovers who the murder is) and the acting is excellent (particularly that of John Mills). Because it didn't take cheap or easy ways out in the plot and kept me guessing, it really impressed me and is a film I'd heartily recommend.

By the way, the little girl at the beginning of the film was Mills' real-life daughter, Juliet! Also, note the cinematography as Mills is on the railway bridge--it's quite a beautiful and impressive scene (especially the first time).

Marple and Poirot ,where are you ?

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 1 January 2020]

A very good performance by John Mills in an old-fashioned whodunit .As he was seriously injured in an accident , he has become a brittle vulnerable man .So when a murder is committed near the boarding-house where he lives ,it's only natural he is the main suspect.

As the spiteful old spinsters in the place are not Miss Marple ,and Hercule Poirot is not at hand ,the suspect has to lead his own investigation .The whodunit is by no means as strong as Mrs Christie's and the truth is revealed at least twenty minutes before the end,but interest and suspense are sustained throughout .

Excellent, little-known gem.

[reg-4 · 10/10 · 15 February 1999]

This is a cracking film, yet not many people seem to have seen it. All the performances in this film are great, but John Mills deserves a special mention for his excellent work in the lead role. The film also has great cinematography, a well-orchestrated sound-track and an excellent plot. Good work.

The Wrong Man.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 3 August 2015]

There never was an actress like Joan Greenwood. She's the upper-middle-class girl friend of possible maniac John Mills here. And she looks demure as always, giving an impression of being about four feet tall. But she plays it straight as an upright woman, not a fey seductress. She uses a girlish voice instead of that throaty croak, full of implications, we've come to expect. The film demonstrates her range as an actress.

And Mills' too. Despite his unprepossessing face, he can be the tortured officer of "Tunes of Glory" or the comic, dim-witted, working-class father of "The Family Way." In the post-war years the Brits produced a number of skilled performers who appeared in one fine movie after another, few duds among them.

The movie starts off a bit sluggishly. Mills is released from a psychiatric hospital after suffering a brain injury during which a child in his care was killed. He holds himself responsible and has suicidal tendencies.

He finds employment as an industrial chemist in a crummy city and lives in a somewhat shabby rooming house with half a dozen diverse neighbors. After several months of despair he more or less recovers and falls for Joan Greenwood. But one of his friends in a neighboring room, an honest and pretty young lady to whom he lends money, is murdered and suspicion falls on Mills -- the ex wreck.

The pace picks up at this point, about a third of the way through, as the police enter the picture. It turns into a murder mystery instead of a melodrama. There are good people, there are wicked people, and there are wicked people who pretend to be good people. The investigations centers on Mills and in fact the film leaves some room for doubt. Hitchcock would have handled it all with aplomb.

There is a furious chase towards the end, the solution is achieved, and the final few minutes are thrown away because evidently no one could think of any better ending.

Early psycho-babble

[Goingbegging · 5/10 · 12 April 2020]

Psychological dramas are a cop-out until proved otherwise. This story is supposed to be about a mental patient accused of a murder he's not sure whether he committed. Yet this hardly drives the film at all. It shows up only in the odd close-up of the John Mills character (Ackland) frowning in self-doubt, as the evidence against him starts to build. The plot would have been stronger if Ackland had just been an ordinary Joe Blow with a clean bill of health.

What we are left with is only the mild satisfaction of peeping into a traditional Miss Marple guest-house, dominated by old widows playing bridge, tempered by one female who is sharply different - a striking case of beauty in distress, in the form of Kay Walsh as Molly, whose private life is getting too busy for her own good. And Joan Greenwood represents the shining reward that Ackland might enjoy if he ever gets out of this nightmare alive.

We can't reveal any more here. But most of the characters generally disappoint by failing to interact. One of them is just reduced to repeating "Can we have more coal?" (referencing rationing and the freezing winter of 1947 when the film was made), while Joyce Carey looks far too spinsterish to be 'Mrs' anyone. But almost any of them look more likely than Molly to be the local horoscope fiend. This brisk, sharp, canny operator really does not carry conviction as the mystic who befriends Ackland by flattering him on the grounds of his birth-sign, from which we get the film's title.

A few other nostalgic echoes, especially how the self-perceived servant class (cab-drivers, stationmasters, even some police) instinctively rush to obey a short, sharp word of command delivered in an establishment voice. But it must be said that scriptwriter Eric Ambler has done far better work than this as a novelist, which is how I classify him to the exclusion of anything else.

October is the cruelest month?

[jozefkafka · 27 March 2008]

I first heard of this 1947 British film in one of Leslie Halliwell's books. Written by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Baker, it's kind of a British answer to Hollywod's noir, essentially a reworking of Grahame Greene's Ministry Of Fear. Chemist (and I do mean "chemist", not pharmacist or apothecary) John Mills blames himself for the death a friend's daughter in a bus crash, which also gives Mills a concussion and tendencies towards blackouts and amnesia. Quicker than you can say "Alfred Hitchcock" Mills is accused of murdering a fellow resident of his boarding house, and poor old John can't remember if he did it or not. What's most fascinating to me is the subtext -- Mills is clearly supposed to represent returning war veterans, but the film's makers were too afraid to have war wounds be the source of his blackouts (even though H'wood had already done it in The Blue Dahlia) and instead resorted to the bus crash contrivance. There is effective direction by Baker (who went to H'wood and made the classic 3D "depthie" Inferno, later returning to England to do A Night To Remember) and Ambler's script is good, with a few surprise scattered throughout.

Intriguing 'wronged man' mystery

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 10 March 2020]

THE OCTOBER MAN is a film interesting for helping shape two lengthy cinematic careers. The first is of leading man John Mills, here playing a taciturn character complete with head injury who finds himself suspected of a crime he didn't commit; a classic "wronged man" performance driven by desperation and audience sympathy. The second is of director Roy Ward Baker, progressing from early shorts to his first full feature; he would of course go on to be associated with Hammer Films for much of his career and he put out many entertaining pictures over the years. This is one of them. It's not a perfect film, feeling a little dated in the genteel first half which don't feature much conflict and takes a little too long to get to the main story, although the narrative gets more interesting and involved as it goes on and the lively climax is a real winner.

Fall Guy

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 12 July 2020]

This is yet another victim of technology i.e. films that were perfectly acceptable on their initial release - anything up to approximately 1970 - when audiences were much more inclined to settle for diverissment and less inclined to ask awkward questions; for example there is a moment shortly after a body has been found on the common when a constable finds a letter, hands it to the inspector who proceeds to read it with neither wearing gloves and thus adding two sets of innocent fingerprints to the possible guilty set already there. Director Roy Baker (he added the 'Ward' later) made a decent fist of his first assignment though he had no more success than any other director in getting John Mills to play a convincing love scene; this was, for example, the third time Mills had played opposite Kay Walsh in five years and in the first two they actually married in the course of the film yet they might as well have been playing siblings and Joan Greenwood has no more success in waking his dormant libido than any other actress. Terence Rattigan may well have 'borrowed' the notion of a hotel peopled with 'characters' including a vicious woman who attempts to blacken the name of a fellow guest when he came to write Separate Tables some seven years later but did so much better than Eric Ambler. Despite these caveats it remains both watchable and enjoyable.

The October Man

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 8 January 2023]

I'm not the greatest fan of John Mills, but he is pretty good in this superior crime thriller. He is involved in a motor accident and many years later is still suffering from after effects when, whilst staying at an hotel, he becomes involved in the investigation of the murder of a fellow resident who is killed after she went out on a foggy London night to post a letter. He has no alibi, and his memories are inconsistent so the police begin suspect him of the crime. Can he do some detective work of his own to find the real killer? The story is pretty formulaic, but there are a few good (short) contributions from Joan Greenwood and Kay Walsh to supply us with enough red herrings to keep it interesting until, I have to say, a really pretty lightweight conclusion. Still, Roy Baker manages to keep the story intriguing enough to carry 90 minutes and I did quite enjoy it.

Astrology Amnesia.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 6 April 2014]

The October man is directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Eric Ambler. It stars John Mills, Joan Greenwood, Edward Chapman, Kay Walsh, Joyce Carey, Catherine Lacey, Adrianne Allen and Felix Aylmer. Music is by William Alwyn and cinematography by Erwin Hillier.

Following a bus crash that killed a friends child that he was treating to a day out, Jim Ackland (Mills) suffers a brain injury. During his recuperation it's revealed to him that he is prone to amnesia, and even though he's suicidal over the child's death, he's released back into society. Setting up lodgings at a hotel and back to work as an industrial chemist, Jim is functioning well. That is until he financially helps one of the young lady residents of the hotel and becomes the chief suspect when she winds up murdered in a park. Jim has no recollection of committing the crime, but he was in the park…

Pulsing with moody atmospherics, this Brit noir – psychological - thriller showcases the best of John Mills and the higher end of the British noir splinter. It's a post war London that's cloaked in shadowy streets, of parks harbouring spectral mists punctured by bulbous lamps, a train station a foreboding but visually stunning presence. Jim Ackland is suicidal and nursing amnesia, yet the hotel where he lives, itself a relic of a London that time forgot, is full of human beings from different ends of the evolutionary scale. It's not a good place for Jim to be, a cuckoos nest of spiteful, suspicious, vengeful, lonely people, Jim in fact, in spite of his problems, appears to be the only sane one there!

There is no great "whodunit" to be solved here, some critics have bizarrely complained that the murderer is too obvious! Bizarre because the makers don't try and hide who it is, the film is firmly interested in the human condition, in how members of society react post a heinous crime, and of course how the afflicted antagonist fights his corner when confronted by hostility and his own mental confusion. Roy Ward Baker, for what was his first direction assignment, is more than up for the job of crafting a noir thriller. He has a good eye for the visual traits that often marry up with human feelings or behaviour, of course having someone of Hillier's class on cinematography duty naturally helps him through his debut production.

Splendid entertainment. 8/10

Going round the bend

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 16 March 2020]

Poor John Mills is being driven mad because the police are being very obtuse and refuse to accept he isn't the murderer.If they had watched many forties films they would have know as we do who the actual murderer is.The hotel is similar to the setting of Seperate Tables.A reasonable thriller.

"You're an October man - October people are affable, suave, dapper and love life"!!!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 30 August 2011]

....so says Molly (Kay Walsh) to Jim Ackland (John Mills), trying to show some hospitality when he gallantly fixes a fuse. At that moment she couldn't be further from the truth - even though he is getting a second chance at life after spending time in a mental institution, he still blames himself for the death of a little girl (Mill's own daughter Juliette) in his care and life in a typical London boarding house isn't helping. On his first evening he instantly falls foul of a couple of elderly residents when he refuses to sit in for a rubber of bridge.

At times he feels suicidal, but time, a steady job at a chemical plant and new friends, including sympathetic and understanding Jenny (beautiful Joan Greenwood) show him that life can be worth living. Even though Bosley Crowther called it "second rate" believe me he didn't know what he was talking about. This is a superlative movie and, I believe, shows John Mills in one of his best performances - he was always at his best depicting decent "everymen" who find circumstances around them spinning out of control. With a screenplay by Eric Ambler, based on his book, you can't expect anything else but excellence.

One of the residents, Molly, has a complicated love life. She is in love with a married man, a complete bounder who has no intention of divorcing his wife and is also having to fend off unsavoury advances from a very creepy lodger, Mr. Peachy (Edward Chapman). When her body is found on the common, the movie's pace really picks up. She had turned to Jim for friendship - her confidant exterior masked a lonely girl away from her family. Jim finds through a series of circumstances (fixing the light in her room, giving her some money so she can return to her family) that someone has implicated him as the main suspect and of course the police don't believe him.

It doesn't help that the cheque Jim gave her is found crumpled near her body and Jim admits to walking on the common that night. The cinematography is moody and atmospheric. It is always dark and foggy outside the boarding house, with vignettes of residents (helpful, though nosey landlady, querolous older guest, elderly lady forever wanting coal and helpful young man) giving the movie an edge. With no support from the police (they haven't believed him from the start) he finds he has to literally go on the run to prove the police wrong. From then on he is just one jump ahead of the law - there is one exciting scene when he is looking for some "left luggage" at the railway station and needs quick thinking to escape the claustrophobic compartment without bumping into an eager constable.

Kay Walsh had already co-starred with John Mills in "This Happy Breed" and "In Which We Serve" and later with films like "Oliver Twist" and "Stage Fright" proved herself a superb character actress. If you ever get a chance to see Adrianne Allen (Joyce Carden) in "The Night of June 13th" (1932) you'll see a really fine performance and also see why she was such a success on the West End.

"You're the man who never comes to tea"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 7/10 · 18 October 2022]

Presumably there are some daytime scenes in the film but it appears mostly to the set in the dark of the evening, which mirrors the dark mind of discharged mental patient Jim Ackland as he tries desperately to return to a steady, normal life. He is helped by a woman he meets through his work as a chemist, the lovely Jenny Carden, and things seem to be going well until a murderer in the vicinity throws everything awry. After all Ackland knew the victim Molly as she was a fellow boarder at the residential hotel he was staying in, he lent her money, he was walking on the common when the crime took place and of course he has had mental trouble, argue the police, so he must be guilty of the murder. But is he?

It's a fine film full of noir atmosphere with a gripping plot. John Mills as the troubled Ackland gives one of his career best performances and the rest of the cast are perfect in their roles, though some having one scene only including veteran Sidney James as 'Man Walking Across Bridge'! I'd give a special mention though to Edward Chapman as Peachy whose quiet malevolence was quite unnerving.

Murderous October

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 11 February 2020]

'The October Man' sounded absolutely great on paper, a mix of psychological drama, film-noir and mystery (a contender for my favourite genre) is very much my cup of tea when it comes to film. Also was drawn in by that it was a very early directing effort, his debut actually, for the reliable Roy Ward Baker and that it had a strong cast headed by John Mills, a versatile actor with an unsurprisingly long career who when in a role that suited him well was very good and more.

While not perfect or mind-blowing, though actually none of the very few flaws it has are major, that didn't stop me from being hugely impressed by 'The October Man'. The great concept is lived up to (not always the case with films with great concepts, have seen a fair share of potential wastes over-time), it's a very well made and put together film, the cast are strong and it was hard to believe that this was a directing debut. If you like murder mysteries mixed with psychoplogy, you should like this.

Do admit to suspecting the person who was the murderer early on while not finding it completely obvious (with there being another person too in particular who was equally capable of doing it).

Agree as well that the police/detective work does suspend disbelief, portrayed as being not particularly competent.

On the other point of view, 'The October Man' looks great. The photography is pure atmospheric class, especially in the climax and just as brilliant at enhancing the Gothic, fog-laden setting. William Alwyn's music score has the right amount of moody unsettlement without being over-the-top or over-emphasising. Baker's direction is more than sturdy, this did not feel like a directing debut at all but indicative more of somebody who had been doing it for some years before and had found their style.

Eric Ambler adapts from his own source material, and it is a thoughtful and taut script. The story is always intriguing and absorbing, with some genuinely suspenseful and memorable moments and some nice twists. The beginning sets up the tone of the film powerfully, but the highlights are the nail-biting ending (where one is like "is he going to do it" or not) and the spine-tingling scene between Jim and Peachy, mainly for Edward Chapman's acting. Mills is utterly riveting in for me one of his best performances, when Jim is in psychological torment Mills' expressions are just so telling and it was hard to not root for Jim. Joan Greenwood is a sympathetic presence and Chapman brilliantly gives a sense of unease. Joyce Carey is a hoot in her role.

Summing up, very good with a lot of great things. 8/10

Not a big fan...

[PudgyPandaMan · 6/10 · 10 July 2008]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this movie, other than the cinematography. I was unfamiliar with any of the actors, although I think I had hear John Mills name before. So I came into with no preconceived ideas of their acting abilities or talents. While the actors seemed to portray their characters reasonably, I think it was more the lack of pace and excitement in the plot itself that was this film's flaw. I'm a big fan of mystery films, so I was expecting to be held in suspense and on the edge of my seat, but there was none of that here for me.

Even though John Mills I'm sure is a decent actor, he seemed a little milquetoast in personality. Perhaps it was just the character's personality, but it made it hard for me to root for him.

But I did really love the cinematography. It was quite beautiful. And I love the time period and seeing the old house and sets.

The Man With The Fractured Skull

[cutterccbaxter · 18 July 2023]

I've become more of a fan of head injury movies in recent years after cracking my head a couple of times while riding my bike. It can be quite disturbing to have memory loss no matter how small of a chunk the loss of memory is. After one incident which put me in hospital for the night it took a few months before the periodic head spins went away.

Fortunately during my recovery period I was not accused of murder, although my memory was solid enough that I am certain I would have remembered such an act.

Nevertheless I could empathize with the plight of John Mills in The October Man. His confused, worried and troubled expressions are quite convincing as he wonders if he is a homicidal maniac. Luckily he has a supportive woman (there is always a supportive woman in a Hollywood film, even when the movie isn't made in Hollywood) in Joan Greenwood. I'd run around in the fog and knock my head a hundred times if I could marry Joan.