Casablanca is set on the eve of America’s involvement and there is romance and a sense that America can make a difference and there is hope for the future.

The Third Man takes place after the horror of the war and we can see what a waste it was. America is not portrayed as a rescuing knight in shining armor (Rick Blaine) but a well meaning but blundering simpleton (Holly Martens) who causes more problems than he solves by trying to do the right thing.

Politically you can argue whether or not this country has continued to do the right thing, but either way you can’t argue with that sense of doubt that creeped in after the war and has settled their. Casablanca takes place in a dangerous, but almost comfortingly binary black and white world where good and evil are clearly defined, but The Third Man exists in a fog of uncertainty and indecision.

For me, that moral uncertainty and ambiguity is a defining characteristic of noir.

But I’m rambling. This is a terrific analysis of one of my favorite movies Luke. Thank you.

Both director Carol Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker define a dark and intriguing filmic universe.

The strength of the story is more than the engaging cavalcade of characters in a true human comedy, but the deep analysis of love and friendship, and the imperatives of conscience. Is loyalty out of passion stronger and more genuine than the loyalty of friendship, where the object of affection is amoral and commits despicable acts?

I must see Witchfinder General; I’ve heard so much about it!

As always, thank for the kind words.

I did mistakenly leave off THREE essential British films from the list,(this always happens!!!) that must be there, the silent HINDLE WAKES (1927) and the 1934 musical EVERGREEN, as well as an absolute personal favorite THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER (1990) by a director I am inexplicably smitten with, Peter Greenaway. These three would go somewhere on the list, and the ones at 48, 49 and 50 would have to fall off.
Of the ones that failed to place, I am saddest about LIFE IS SWEET, HOBSON’S CHOICE, THUNDER ROCK, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE STARS LOOK DOWN, THE RULING CLASS, and the ultra-disturbing 10 RILLINGTON PLACE.

Talk about getting off the subject!?! My apologies, I am often guilty of this.

A wonderful list, though. And an excellent reminder that I really need to see Fires Were Started and Love on the Dole. I’m scared by the realization that I’ve seen everything else in that list.

1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949)
3. Great Expectations (Lean, 1946)
4. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
5. Kes (Loach, 1969)
6. Black Narcissus (Powell, 1947)
7. Richard III (Olivier, 1955)
8. The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock, 1938)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
10. Henry V (Olivier, 1944)
11. Oliver Twist (Lean, 1948)
12. Odd Man Out (Reed, 1947)
13. Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945)
14. The Thirty-Nine Steps (Hitchcock, 1935)
15. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
16. Dr. Strangelove (Kurick, 1963)
17. Brighton Rock (Boulting, 1947)
18. A Diary For Timothy (Jennings, 1945)
19. Oh! Mr. Porter (Vanal, Will Hay, 1937)
20. A Matter of Life and Death (P/P, 1946)
21. Dead of Night (Hamer, 1945)
22. The Thief of Baghdad (Powell, 1940)
23. Whisky Galore (Mackendrick, 1949)
24. A Christmas Carol (Hurst, 1951)
25. Henry V (Branagh, 1989)
26. Hope and Glory (Boorman, 1987)
27. Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (P/P, 1943)
28. Distant Voices Still Lives (Davies, 1988)
29. Pygmalion (Asquith, 1938)
30. If….(Anderson, 1968)
31. A Hard Day’s Night (Lester, 1964)
32. A Man For All Seasons (Zinnemann, 1966)
33. Straw Dogs (Peckinpah, 1971)
34. The Tomb of Ligeia (Corman, 1964)
35. The Man in the White Suit (Mackendrick, 1951)
36. Rembrandt (1936, Korda)
37. Deep End (Skolimowski, 1970)
38. Colloden (Watkins, 1964)
39. Fires Were Started (Jennings, 1943)
40. The Red Shoes (P/P, 1948)
41. Peeping Tom (Powell, 1959)
42. The Wicker Man (Hardy, 1973)
43. The True Glory (Reed, 1945)
44. Hamlet (Olivier, 1948)
45. The Go-Between (Losey, 1970)
46. Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975)
47. The Long Day Closes (Davies, 1992)
48. Atonement (Wright, 2007)
49. The Lavender Hill Mob (Crichton, 1951)
50. Becket (Glenville, 1964)
51. My Fair Lady (Cukpr, 1964)
52. The Tales of Hoffmann (P/P, 1951)
53. A Canterbury Tale (P/P, 1944)
54. Oliver! (Reed, 1968)
55. Love on the Dole (Baxter, 1941)
56. The Horror of Dracula (Fisher, 1958)
57. Gandhi (Attenborough, 1982)
58. The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)
59. Vera Drake (Leigh, 2004)
60. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock, 1934)

Again, I want to thank you for your terrific consideration of the creme de la creme of British cinema.

THE THIRD MAN is truly a five star classic. It couldn’t possibly be anything else.

It’s equal parts wicked and sublime.

When you have a dream cast like that (JOSEPH COTTEN, ORSON WELLES, ALIDA VALLI, TREVOR HOWARD) directed by SIR CAROL REED, it would be almost impossible for it to go wrong.

As Luke so astutely pointed out, the cuckoo clock speech is sardonic brilliance.

ORSON pulls the rug out from everyone. HARRY LIME is the kind of part that every actor dreams of. The other characters and the audience are thinking about you even when you’re NOT on screen – and only a charismatic genius like Mr. Welles could genuinely do this part justice.

The tragedy, of course, is that JOSEPH COTTON’S HOLLY doesn’t get the girl. ALIDA VALLI’S character has some sort of misplaced allegiance to HARRY. She’ll never forgive HOLLY for what happened. But she doesn’t understand what actually took place…and it’s likely she wouldn’t care anyway.

She prefers to grieve for an amoral man who is blatantly unworthy of her. But with Harry’s demise it will be much easier to convince herself that he really was a martyr.

That last shot is brilliant. Hits you like a cold bucket of water directly across the face.

That zither will haunt me for the rest of my days…

Alexander, I agree that Reed isn’t really engaging in “Nietzschean posturing” — I was merely using that as a bit of shorthand. Your allusion to “Nietzschean gobbledygook” is, admittedly, much more apt.

I have seen THE THIRD MAN well over 60 times in my life, including no less than six times at NYC film festivals of various focus and I agree it does indeed keep getting better and better!”

It’s a highly political picture. I’d say rather than engaging in Nietzschean posturing, Reed merely allows Lime to spout pseudo-Nietzschean gobbledy-gook, which makes his comeuppance all the more appropriate (though it’s hardly a celebratory moment, either, as you note).

Graham Greene’s writing is so wonderful and his story so beautiful, and without that The Third Man couldn’t exist–though as lovely as Greene’s work is, the film adaptation is a rarity that manages to be superior to the source material (all the more rare when adapting from such a sagacious novelist, though it doubtless helped to have Greene adapt his own novel into such a fine screenplay).

“Nietzschean posturing”

“the motif of resurection” owning more to Marx………

“In a paradox that the human race is never likely to come to terms with, it’s almost exclusively times of hardship that produces great art.”

“Reed throwing a Dutch angle……..”

“Lime is the quintessential ‘ubermensch’ possessing no morals or ethics to speak of, controlling everyone around him.”

“Gone are the ubiquitous shadows and the menacing music; in their place is a slow-burning, meticulous sense of craft that manages a historical and political resonance rarely seen within the genre. The end result is nothing short of transcendent.”

What can I say, this is top-rank–you can’t expect Movie Zeal to do any better than this, to go any further. This is a treatment for the ages. Congratulations Luke!

I totally agree about the encounter Rick…it’s really the sort of thing you can’t get out of your head for weeks after watching the film. (On the other hand, I can’t help but hear a Hollywood producer going, “Come on, Carol-baby, can’t you throw in some gun shots and an explosion?”…yeesh.)

I watched it again the other night and called myself crazy. I must have been having a bad day when I first watched it, because this film is a masterpiece. Pure and simple. Great review, Luke — the Welles quote is perfect.

I think you’re right about Martins … it’s an “ugly American” performance, we’re not supposed to like him very much, which makes the film all the more disturbing. There’s nobody we like all that much to root for. We end up rooting for Harry, in spite of the horrible things he’s done, in spite of Nietzschean outlook. What a great film.