The Third Man
Hunted by men ... Sought by WOMEN!
Directed by Carol Reed this 1949 film noir follows Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), a struggling writer who goes to post-war Vienna to stay with his friend Harry Lime, only to find out when he gets there that Harry has died without any plausible explanation. Holly becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to his friend, discovering some less than savoury truths about Harry along the way.
I am just going to come out and say it, “The Third Man is my all-time favourite movie”. ‘Why?’, quite simply it is the perfect mix of drama and suspense with remarkable plot twists. It has some of the most iconic cinematography of all-time shot by Robert Krasner (who quite rightly won an Oscar for it), and was written by Graham Greene. The open-ended conclusion is one of the best scenes ever put to film. I have seen The Third Man at least 50 times yet I still see new things in the background which I have never noticed before. There is no such thing as a perfect film, although this one does come pretty close.
10/10-Calum Roberts