The October Man (1947)

★ 6.2 1h 35m IMDb
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Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed.

The October Man

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Cast

John Mills
John Mills as Jim Ackland Died 2005 · The Watts Naval Training College, North Elmham, Norfolk, England, UK Sir John Mills, CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often p...
Joan Greenwood
Joan Greenwood as Jenny Carden Died 1987 · Chelsea, London, England, UK Joan Greenwood (4 March 1921 – 27 February 1987) was an English actress. Born in Chelsea, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, w...
Edward Chapman
Edward Chapman as Mr. Peachy Died 1977 · Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edward Chapman (13 October 1901 - 9 August 1977) was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wil...
Kay Walsh
Kay Walsh as Molly Newman Died 2005 · Chelsea, London, England, UK ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kay Walsh  (born Kathleen Walsh, 15 November 1911,Chelsea, London, England; died 16 April 2005, Chelsea, London) was an English actress and dancer. She grew up...
Joyce Carey
Joyce Carey as Mrs. Vinton Died 1993 · London, England, UK ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Joyce Carey, OBE (30 March 1898 – 28 February 1993) was a British actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward. H...
Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey as Miss Selby Died 1979 · London, England, UK From Wikipedia Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen. She made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hi...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 8/10 Apr 06, 2014
Astrology Amnesia.

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
CinemaSerf 7/10 Jul 07, 2022
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.

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