<< May 27 - 31, 2007 >>>

Discuss this series with other film fans on:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque

British director Carol Reed directed his first feature film in 1935 (IT HAPPENED IN PARIS) and went on to toil on numerous B quickies in Britain’s struggling film industry through the rest of the decade before finally winning his first critical acclaim with THE STARS LOOK DOWN in 1940. More classics followed with NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940) and YOUNG MR. PITT (1942). In the late 1940’s, he began a phenomenal creative roll of the dice with three lauded, popular masterpieces -- all coming right in succession, ODD MAN OUT (1947), THE FALLEN IDOL and THE THIRD MAN (1949).

In 1968, Reed won a Best Director Academy Award for OLIVER! He died in 1976.

Sunday, May 27 - 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE THIRD MAN, 1949, Rialto Pictures, 93 min. Director Carol Reed was nominated for a Best Director Oscar and Robert Krasker won for Best Cinematography. Graham Greene wrote the original story and screenplay (and later adapted it into a novel) for this superlative thriller about post-WWII criminal intrigue in still-ravaged, bureaucratically- compromised Vienna. Orson Welles excels in perhaps his most famous role as homicidal rogue Harry Lime. In fact, Lime is so charming, even after it’s found he has murdered people and faked his own death, his estranged paramour (Alida Valli) still remains loyal to him and his old best friend (Joseph Cotten) cannot bring himself to believe the awful truth. Trevor Howard and Bernard Lee (M of the early Bond films) are the intrepid British intelligence officers trying to nab Lime while navigating the political minefield of the zone-fractured metropolis (divided up into districts by the WWII victors: America, Britain, Russia and France).

THE FALLEN IDOL, 1948, Rialto Pictures, 95 min. Graham Greene once again supplied the story and co-wrote the screenplay for this psychological mystery directed by Carol Reed. Bobby Henrey is the lonely, eight-year-old son of the French ambassador in London. His father leaves for the weekend to fetch back his recuperating spouse from a rest home, and, while he is gone, the housekeeper wife of butler Ralph Richardson (whom Bobby idolizes) dies in a fall. Was she murdered? Was it an accident? No one is sure, and Bobby is the only witness. Complicating matters is the embassy typist (Michele Morgan) with whom Richardson may be in love. "As THE THIRD MAN admirers can testify, impeccable construction, psychological acuity and moral complexity are the hallmarks of Reed's films from this period. In FALLEN IDOL a terrific amount of emotional tension is added to the mix, a sense of possible impending doom that bespeaks a film that knows what it is doing and how to do it." – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Thursday, May 31 - 7:30 PM

Kevin Thomas’ Favorites

ODD MAN OUT, 1947, MGM Repertory, 115 min. Directed by Carol Reed and starring James Mason as the IRA gunman, Johnny, who gets wounded and lost on a raid. His last hours in the city are as beautiful and hallucinatory as they are tragic. Is Johnny dogged by bad luck? Is fate pursuing him? Or is he actually staggering towards the light? The power of this extraordinary film has lasted, along with the insolubility of its political problem. The film was written by R.C. Sherriff and F.L. Green, from the latter's novel. The sterling cast includes Robert Newton, Fay Compton, Robert Beatty, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick and Kathleen Ryan, but just as important is cameraman Robert Krasker, who would receive an Oscar two years later for his work on Reed’s THE THIRD MAN. Film critic Jean Oppenheimer will stand in for Kevin Thomas (who unfortunately has to be out of town the day of the screening) will introduce the screening.