A Terrible Beauty

A provocative theme - the dilemma in WWII of an IRA volunteer when he finds the organisation making common cause with the Nazis - becomes merely background noise in a stock melodrama that might as well be set anywhere. Technically British but co-produced by Mitchum's own company, it feels more American than anything else. Certainly the English didn't relish being cast in the Redskin role, skittled over in numbers by the film's heroes, any more, perhaps, than the Irish welcomed a reminder of this period of history. And Garnett's old fashioned, unimaginative handling killed it for audiences everywhere else. But as a Mitchum movie it's interesting for the way it re-examines (after The Wonderful Country) matters of nationality and loyalty.