Discussion of "The October Man"

The October Man (1947) is a British mystery film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring John Mills and Joan Greenwood. The screenplay was written by novelist Eric Ambler who also served as producer.

Jim Ackland (Mills) sustains a brain injury in a bus accident and a young girl in his care is killed. The guilt, combined with the brain injury has Jim filled with guilt. His guilt led him to attempt suicide twice while he was in recovery.

Once out of the hospital, Jim gets a job as a chemist and lives in a boarding house with an assortment of interesting characters, to say the least. He meets a young woman, Jenny Carden (Joan Greenwood) the sister of a work colleague, and the relationship becomes serious.

One of the rooming house residents, Molly Newman (Kay Walsh) asks Jim if she can borrow 30 pounds, a considerable sum. Jim writes her a check and she is found murdered the next day.

Because of Jim’s hospitalization for a brain injury, he immediately becomes the prime suspect. Jenny tries to convince Jim that he couldn’t have murdered Molly, but Jim isn’t so sure. He wonders if he might have murdered her in some kind of trance.

Is Jim a murderer? Or is there another murderer out there who could murder again?

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