Pods Against Tomorrow: Reinvestigating Film Noir
May 24, 2026 · 1 hr 44 min · 13 segments
Pods Against Tomorrow reinvestigates the noir genre one film at a time. Join our hosts, Hugh Manon and Abe Doubleday-Bush, along with a rotating guest — our "Ace in the Hole" — as they delve into an…
Hugh ManonHostSankirthana VedantamGuestAbe Doubleday-BushHostThe first item on our agenda, it's Abe with a period summary of the film that we call the Throwback Rundown.
Odd Man Out tells the story of a member of an organization understood to be the IRA, which in 1947 was practically dormant.
The young leader of the Belfast chapter of the group, Johnny McQueen, James Mason, has escaped from prison while serving a sentence for gun-running and has been hiding out for the past six months.
Johnny is thought by his friends not to be in good enough shape, physically or nervously, to carry out even a minor operation.
Robbing payroll at a local mill, planned as a source of money for the widows and children of men KIA.
When the alarm bell goes off, Johnny's companions are the ones who lose their nerve and start to panic.
The getaway car leaving him behind, Johnny picks himself up and runs as far as he has the strength, then hides in an air raid shelter.
Dennis, Robert Beatty, a fellow member of the organization, makes a rescue attempt but fails, leaving Johnny once more alone on the road, looking for a place to shelter or a friend to help him.
Throughout the late afternoon and night, the loss of blood causes hallucinations and increasing weakness.
From time to time, help seems to be forthcoming, but in almost every case for purely selfish motives.
The girl who loves him, Kathleen Sullivan, Kathleen Ryan, finds him with his strength almost gone and tries to get passage for him aboard one of the ships in the dock.
She leads him, staggering, towards the ship, but the coppers are closing in.
Kathleen fires a gun in their direction and draws an answering volley, killing them both.
And that rundown is from none other than James Mason in his 1981 biography, Before I Forget.
So before I knock over my Guinness and inadvertently invent the ad campaign for Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner-
The first item on our agenda, it's Abe with a period summary of the film that we call the Throwback Rundown.
Odd Man Out tells the story of a member of an organization understood to be the IRA, which in 1947 was practically dormant.
The young leader of the Belfast chapter of the group, Johnny McQueen, James Mason, has escaped from prison while serving a sentence for gun-running and has been hiding out for the past six months.
Johnny is thought by his friends not to be in good enough shape, physically or nervously, to carry out even a minor operation.
Robbing payroll at a local mill, planned as a source of money for the widows and children of men KIA.
When the alarm bell goes off, Johnny's companions are the ones who lose their nerve and start to panic.
The getaway car leaving him behind, Johnny picks himself up and runs as far as he has the strength, then hides in an air raid shelter.
Dennis, Robert Beatty, a fellow member of the organization, makes a rescue attempt but fails, leaving Johnny once more alone on the road, looking for a place to shelter or a friend to help him.
Throughout the late afternoon and night, the loss of blood causes hallucinations and increasing weakness.
From time to time, help seems to be forthcoming, but in almost every case for purely selfish motives.
The girl who loves him, Kathleen Sullivan, Kathleen Ryan, finds him with his strength almost gone and tries to get passage for him aboard one of the ships in the dock.
She leads him, staggering, towards the ship, but the coppers are closing in.
Kathleen fires a gun in their direction and draws an answering volley, killing them both.
And that rundown is from none other than James Mason in his 1981 biography, Before I Forget.
So before I knock over my Guinness and inadvertently invent the ad campaign for Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner-
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