

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.
Cinematography
Robert Krasker's expressionist shadows redefined British noir.
Acting
James Mason's dying eyes — you can feel the fever through the screen.
Direction
Reed makes Belfast a character that watches, judges, forgets.

Director
Carol Reed
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Reed filmed the Belfast exteriors secretly in London after the real city refused; locals immediately spotted the geographic lies.
The IRA refused to cooperate, forcing Reed to invent a fictional paramilitary group — yet the film was still banned in Ireland until 1959.