The Third Man (1949)

Star Rating- 3
Length of Film- 104 minutes
Director- Carol Reed
Cast- Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Paul Horbiger, Ernst Deutxch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Bernard Lee, & Wilfrid Hyde-White
Oscar- Robert Krasker (photography)
Oscar Nominations- Carol Reed (director), Oswalk Hafenrichter (editing)





 The movie is set at the end of World War II, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) arrives in Vienna to meet Harry Lime (Orson Welles) , his old friend from school, who has offered him a job. When he reaches Vienna, he finds out Harry died.

Blah...blah...blah... Martin tries to figure out what happened, met up with Lime's girlfriend Anna (Alida Valli) and falls in love with her. 

This movie is popular for 2 reasons: Harry Lime is ranked #37 for AFI's Villain list because he was stealing penicillin from military hospitals, deluding it and selling it on the black market, with many fatalities for those that used it.

Second reason is the only music that's played in the film is a zither. 

The ending was sad...but I liked it. Anna was walking by herself, and Martins was driving away. He had the driver stop the car, he got out and stood there, waiting for Anna to catch up to him. She never looked him, didn't even stop, she just kept on walking. And let me say, the photography was stunning.

City Lights (1931)

Star Rating- 4
Length of Film- 87 minutes (silent)
Director- Charles Chaplin
Cast- Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers, Al Ernest Garcia, Hank Mann, & Charles Chaplin









In 1927, movie studios started making movies with sound. Charlie Chaplin was afraid that he wouldn't have as much success if they heard his voice, so he decided to go against the trend and make a silent film in this 1931 film, City Lights.

Charlie Chaplin's character meets a blind girl that sells flowers, he immediately fell in love. With the flower in the button hook of his lapel, he interrupts a man who's trying to commit suicide in the river. He uses the hook in his cane to help save him.

After surviving the suicide attempt, the rich man became fast friends with Chaplin's character. They went out drinking, and got really drunk.

The Tramp: Be careful how you're driving
Drunken Millionaire: Am I driving?

Another great scene is when he decides to enter a boxing competition to help raise money for blind girls operation. He did set up the opponent boxer to "split" the prize money, but at the last minute, the opponent got switched and The Tramp (Chaplin) panicked.

It's actually a funny movie with a tad bit of romance :) Enjoy the movie.