5. The Third Man (1949)
Dir. Carol Reed
Though noir is considered an American phenomenon, some of the greatest examples of the genre were not made in the States. Several of the very best were made abroad in Europe, specifically in Great Britain and France. Some of them were made by American filmmakers who had been exiled, in particular Jules Dassin who, after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, made the superlative Night and the City (1950) and Rififi (1955) in Britain and France respectively. But the best non-American noir was a British film made with British money by a British director: Carol Reed’s The Third Man. Set in Allied-occupied Vienna, the film sees a visiting American writer stumble into a murder mystery that leads into a sinister criminal conspiracy. The film boasts three of the best soundtracks, performances, and cinematography not just in British moviemaking but in world cinema: Anton Karas’ ironic, detached zither score; Orson Welles’ iconic, chilling turn as black marketer Harry Lime—a shot of him starring out of a partly lit alleyway has been rightfully immortalized as a key image in the Western cinematic canon; and Robert Krasker’s disturbing, monolithic photography transforming the city of Vienna into a necropolis as distorted and warped as anything from German Expressionism. The Third Man was a perfect confluence of talent and timing, creating one of the supreme masterpieces of British cinema.
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