The Third Man (1949)
Classic British film noir today directed by Carol Reed and staring Joseph cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. In a divided post war Vienna an American author hunts for the murders of his dead friend.
Black and white photography combined with the back drop of a historic city that has been bombed out provide a really great foundation to build a film on and the excellent cinematography on show here really brings that out as does the films music. This is a really well crafted film that exudes style and atmosphere.
As this is a film noir not everything turns out as one might expect in the plot, although waiting for Orson Wells to turn up is a slight spoiler. The plot is not especially deep and is a little slow to get going which is a slight disappointment but does not detract from the film. I also think some of the characters could have been a little more fleshed out, the Czech girl friend in particular but there is a great ending moment.
4/5 one of the classic film noir and a historic piece of British cinema.
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