ORSON WELLES AND JOSEPH COTTEN SURVIVE 'THE THIRD MAN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqWSejnyKnB7mSR6e9h9788VL35JPB_bOYY2tnUD8zOvi5NnTUlCigKdkvGMT6KI8AQUzrEV8UHtdu_Rn456sM2tWLQBjYiW6nQa0FlYiNDEhZHjnxkV-PwieRCTgyKNqkThv3J2ayLsSOI21IPPbktLn8fQPPP2_2Mnty7ImUyik6tN8so70W42V-bA/s952/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-04%20at%204.48.22%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="952" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqWSejnyKnB7mSR6e9h9788VL35JPB_bOYY2tnUD8zOvi5NnTUlCigKdkvGMT6KI8AQUzrEV8UHtdu_Rn456sM2tWLQBjYiW6nQa0FlYiNDEhZHjnxkV-PwieRCTgyKNqkThv3J2ayLsSOI21IPPbktLn8fQPPP2_2Mnty7ImUyik6tN8so70W42V-bA/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-11-04%20at%204.48.22%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title:THE THIRD MAN Year: 1949 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's not really that big a deal that Orson Welles turns up over fifty-minutes into THE THIRD MAN, being that audiences awaited KING KONG for about the same period of time...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The term best describing Welles's Harry Lime is <i>anticipated antagonist,</i> and yet all his criminal activity is refuted by best friend Joseph Cotten as <i>cheap novelette</i> Western writer Holly Martins, and especially heartbroken stage-actress-girlfriend Alida Valli, who Cotten attempts subtly romancing... but can't compete with the ghost...</p><p><span></span></p>

alida valli, bernard lee, british film noir, carol reed, forties, joseph cotten, mystery, orson welles, thriller, trevor howard

ORSON WELLES AND JOSEPH COTTEN SURVIVE 'THE THIRD MAN'

Title:THE THIRD MAN Year: 1949 Rating: ***** It's not really that big a deal that Orson Welles turns up over fifty-minutes into THE THIR...

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2Rbtrf8pvwc-M61mzgyaM3Y8WUhjb1u32qbOMwwN8IPYnxI_IrVeHJ7EK-4F9gIi4AwV0dXIy262qiioYsDUEvXKlqbrHMgNFTI9xaAY4Is0vbkYGEW4Nq1APSqMv7YwgNPAO7eTX3Ec/s1600/55865125_675646786197834_3391611282808373248_n.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="794" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2Rbtrf8pvwc-M61mzgyaM3Y8WUhjb1u32qbOMwwN8IPYnxI_IrVeHJ7EK-4F9gIi4AwV0dXIy262qiioYsDUEvXKlqbrHMgNFTI9xaAY4Is0vbkYGEW4Nq1APSqMv7YwgNPAO7eTX3Ec/s400/55865125_675646786197834_3391611282808373248_n.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Beatty bribes an urchin for help YEAR: 1947</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> James Mason is always intense, even when he's playing comedy, and this is no comedy: The most riveting scenes seem initially very standard and, for this seemingly doomed, wounded Irish nationalist leader left for dead, staggering through darkened alleys and hidden rooms, he seems to come across things that, at first, seem much different than they turn out being, making this ODD MAN way, way OUT there while at the same time, the audience struggles within the desperate man's perspective...<br> <br> So the suspense relies on a fish out of water almost drowning while perhaps the best moments occur in the set-up as we see through what's truly a semi-deranged mind to begin with: having been holed-up indoors, and before that prison, even his own gang don't trust his instincts and capabilities to pull off a relatively otherwise in-and-out office heist, but in fact, Mason's intrepidly lost Johnny McQueen is backed by tough, assertive Robert Beatty; weaselly, gun-toting Cyril Cusack; timid Dan O'Herlihy; and the lovely, soulfully sad yet dedicated and stubborn-tough ingenue Kathleen Ryan...<br>

british film noir/melodrama, carol reed, cyril cusack, dan o'herlihy, drama, forties, IRA, james mason, kathleen ryan, robert beatty, thriller

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

Robert Beatty bribes an urchin for help YEAR: 1947 James Mason is always intense, even when he's playing comedy, and this is no com...

CAROL REED DIRECTS REX HARRISON IN 'NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXv_ffGFoEJqs5cW8pbkHqcMN8SmN_pKCJrOLDcUjvlZrleqauaHJHSuYHprA0dpaJ6-ckxalJopi-6_YdG45uWDB36s-McFXpCCaOpe9ksWZC0gECYdGSQBiiyjjlLcloYKYuLcOoAXg/s1600/91BDRfAUvKL._SL1500_.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXv_ffGFoEJqs5cW8pbkHqcMN8SmN_pKCJrOLDcUjvlZrleqauaHJHSuYHprA0dpaJ6-ckxalJopi-6_YdG45uWDB36s-McFXpCCaOpe9ksWZC0gECYdGSQBiiyjjlLcloYKYuLcOoAXg/w277-h400/91BDRfAUvKL._SL1500_.jpg" width="277"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1940 Rating: ***</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> By the time we're on that title train to the title location, the dialogue-driven European WW2 espionage is pretty much done, and the Germans think our leading man Rex Harrison, as Dickie Randall a.k.a. Gus Bennett, is a Nazi, a British agent or a Nazi for the British or a Brit for their their own cause being he's so charmingly sneaky, and that makes for an effective performance since in any thriller genre, a touch of mystery is needed to keep things fresh, and the subtle chase, following said character, on a windswept pace, leads to more of an action/adventure at the end, though a bit too little, too late.<br> <br> As for direction, Carol Reed moves his chess pieces around nicely, including lovely first-billed Margaret Lockwood, who has to trust this dashing, talky mystery man to help her and her scientist father escape from the world-dominating villains, after she'd fallen pathetically hard for the true Nazi spy in extra-polite charmer Paul Henreid, and there's more than a touch of dark humor being that NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH was made on hte verge of war, this a journey on the edge that never goes full-out where it needs to be. Yet had the same plot and, for the time, decent special effects occurred, say, in 1946, this might have been a lot stronger for the characters (including the cricket-loving duo who stole the Hitchcock's connected A LADY VANISHES but are overused here) and audience alike. But what's there to experience is a decent visual page-turner; although it goes in one ear and out the other... The best thing about this TRAIN is the Criterion DVD cover, perhaps the best ever, ever, in their series consisting of some of the best artwork ever, ever created for collectors of vintage motion pictures. What's unfortunate are the grainy cuts to actual war planes, not fitting the actual film's aesthetic; however, the use of model buildings and factories looks fantastic. <br>

british, carol reed, espionage, forties, franchise, margaret lockwood, nazi, paul henreid, rex harrison, thriller, war, world war II

CAROL REED DIRECTS REX HARRISON IN 'NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH'

year: 1940 Rating: *** By the time we're on that title train to the title location, the dialogue-driven European WW2 espionage is pr...