This is a classic noir film starring Joseph Cotton and directed by Carol Reed. This movie is sold on the strength of another star, Orson Wells, but I think that even mentioning that he is in this film is a bit of a spoiler. His character doesn’t show up until over halfway through the film and it is a big revel when he does. It’s the type of revel that you can imagine that is going to happen. That is why I didn’t like knowing that he was in the movie.

There are more dutch angles in this movie that any other film I can think of. It is clearly a noir, and that comes with all the trappings. Voiceover,…

The Third Man had, for me, always existed in a vacuum. It's a fixture in best-of lists, and no.1 in the BFI 100, yet I've never otherwise seen it discussed in the media, never heard it mentioned in conversation, never had it recommended to me, never seen it listed in the profiles of friends or of anyone who took my fancy. (But I just looked on Facebook after watching it, and it turns out 3 friends have liked it, all of whom tend to have fairly different taste from me.)

And for some reason I'd always associated the name "Harry Lime" with Michael Caine. Doh. [Harry Palmer + limey, I guess.]

The Third Man is a distinctive riff on noir,…

It had been ten years since I’d seen Reed’s masterpiece and it held up indubitably. Has there ever been a film whose legend has hinged more on its score? Not to discredit its serendipitous fusion of other components. Carol Reed and Robert Krasker’s canted-angled conversations and shots of various European inhabitants and expressionist on-location filming of war-torn Vienna make for a film filled with cobbled rubble and endless labyrinthine shadowing. Graham Greene’s script denigrates Holly Martins without quite making a joke of him. His indecision, naivete, consistent buffoonery, low-brow shoot-em-ups and unrequited crush all make him satisfyingly human. He even gets bitten by a parrot! And that last shot is what I remembered more than anything from having seen it…

Pulp writer Holly Martins arrives in Vienna at the behest of his friend Harry Lime, only to find out that Lime died in an accident just before he arrived. Alone in a strange place, he tries to find answers to his questions regarding the death of his friend.

The Third Man is one of my absolute favorite films and one where I feel pretty much everything works perfectly. I think it gains a lot from being British, especially its layer of dark comedy. It has a much more European tone, even though the main character is an American. He's the outsider in a confusing world.

That British tone is clear from the very start with the narration by Carol Reed…

I feel that there probably isn't much I can say about this film that hasn't been said before. I thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece so I will just mention a few things that stuck with me the most.

The direction and score are phenomenal, as has been said many times before. A favourite scene of mine was in the restaurant with the fat woman slowly and deliberately chewing her food whilst being serenaded with such beautiful song. I couldn't help but smile as I watched it.

The post-war setting was fantastic too. Whilst in the first instance I found it quite superficial, I grew to look forward to the chase scenes over the rubble of post-war Vienna. This coupled with some…

This is a classic noir film starring Joseph Cotton and directed by Carol Reed. This movie is sold on the strength of another star, Orson Wells, but I think that even mentioning that he is in this film is a bit of a spoiler. His character doesn’t show up until over halfway through the film and it is a big revel when he does. It’s the type of revel that you can imagine that is going to happen. That is why I didn’t like knowing that he was in the movie.

There are more dutch angles in this movie that any other film I can think of. It is clearly a noir, and that comes with all the trappings. Voiceover,…

I really enjoyed this movie, it hit all the right notes for me. I was thoroughly engaged by the story and characters. The visuals are also a high note as for the time the cinematography is particularly impressive.

I really am quite fond of these mystery type plots where a groundwork is laid and then the rest of the movie is spent working out how, when and why the events happened. In this case we follow Holly Martins as he investigates his friend Harry Lime's death and as he pushes further and further the story takes some interesting and dramatic turns. What I really liked is how involved in the plot I felt and how well paced it is, information…

Some people like older films, others don't. I would, however, challenge anyone to dislike The Third Man.

No time is wasted getting into the story, with our protagonist Martins (Joseph Cotton) arriving in post-war Vienna to find his friend and prospective employer, has died after being hit by a car. After a few chance encounters and increasingly inquisitive conversations, Martins begins to suspect that the death of his pal Harry Lime (Orson Welles) is a slightly more complex case than it seems. When the police dismiss Lime as just another racketeer in a city of racketeers, Martens sets off to clear the late man's name.

This mystery movie makes full use of its black-and-white presentation: a city of shadows and…