THE THIRD MAN ****

"The Third Man" isn't just the greatest thriller ever made but one of cinema's great masterpieces. There isn't a single redundant shot or moment in the entire picture which has become one of the most 'quoted' of all time. If you've seen it you will already know the brilliance of its relatively simple plot; if you haven't then I envy you the luxury of experiencing it for the first time. Everyone connected with it, both in front of and behind the camera, was working at the top of their form. Graham Greene concocted it and it's one of the great scripts, (even if the 'cuckoo clock' speech is reputed to have been written by Orson Welles).

Welles plays Harry Lime and he is one of cinema's most iconic characters; he may be in only three scenes but he dominates the picture. Joseph Cotten is his friend, Holly Martin, an American writer determined to find out what happened to Lime. Trevor Howard is the British major out to expose him and Alida Valli is the actress in love with Lime. Robert Krasker's expressionistic black and white cinematography is among the most luminous in all of film; he shot it mostly in the ruins of Vienna and won a richly deserved Oscar while Anton Karas' zither music is justly famous. The director was Carol Reed who out-Hichcock's Hitchcock in his handling of the material. It was once voted the best British film ever made; who am I to disagree?