.jeri.

As I get more mobile, I keep forgetting about this blog, and now I'm falling behind again. Whoops!

The Third Man is one of those movies I knew I needed to watch but have somehow avoided for all of these years. I knew it was one of my sister's favorite movies, and unfortunately, I had come across her while she was watching it more than once. So I had heard the famous music many a time, and I had seen the famous tunnel chase scene more than once as well. Thankfully, I didn't remember how that scene played out when I finally watched the movie all the way through.

This movie is in every list of the top movies ever made that I have seen. It stars the always wonderful Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, who has recently arrived to work with an old friend in Austria, only to find out that his friend was killed in a car accident right before he arrived. The more Martins tries to learn about his friend, Harry Lime, the more he learns that he didn't know his friend as well as he thought. He is joined in his investigations by Anna (Alida Valli), who was dating Lime, and the two slowly uncover the story of Lime and his involvement with the black market in post-war Vienna.

Written by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed, and starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, it's hard to see where this movie could possibly go wrong; and so it doesn't. It has mystery, romance, surprising twists, and it looks and sounds good on top of that.

I don't think I can talk too freely about the movie without spoiling it, and I'm pretty sure there are plenty of my readers who haven't seen it. Everything works as it should in the film, and with great performances and great directing, it's no wonder people admire this movie in the same way they admire Casablanca. I also really loved the final shot of the movie. I'm sure to see it again and sure it will get better each time I watch it.