Top 250 Challenge: 151

The Third Man(1949)
Number 46 on IMDb's Top 250

An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and that all the witnesses were Lime's friends, including the driver of the truck who ran over Lime, and Martins determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Although David O. Selznick theoretically produced, the rest of the crew hated him and his ideas (he suggested once to Graham Greene that the film be called "Night Time in Vienna"). He had wanted to make the film "American friendly" with either Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart as Holly, and Robert Mitchum as Harry. However, one of the main reasons that he had been chosen to co-produce in the first place was simply so that it would be possible to have Orson Welles as Harry, as he was working for O. Selznick at the time.

This movie could have been called "Who killed Harry Lime?" This is clasic noir with it's use of shadows, amazing visuals, camera angles, dialog and acting. Joseph Cotton and Alida Valli sizzle as the down and out writer and the girl with a past who start to fall in love with each other while they search for the elusive truth of the third man. Orson Wells is also pretty good a Harry.