This was not for my film class, but extra credit in my Dangerous Art class. We're looking at the propaganda of the Cold War and this film was assigned to let us see the levels of paranoia and distrust immediately following World War II.Novelist Hollie Martin (Joseph Cotten) has come to Vienna to meet his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Wells), only to discover that Harry is dead, killed by a hit-and-run. Hollie is also shocked to discover his buddy was involved in post-war illegal smuggling on the black market. He doesn't believe it and works to clear his friend's name, running through a host of shady characters before stumbling across a bigger conspiracy than he could have imagined.
Joseph Cotten isn't my favorite leading man by a long shot, but he is very sympathetic here and that's what really drives the film. Alida Valli looked a little too much like every other dark-haired European heroine for me to engage with her character. I kept getting shades of Ingrid Bergman or Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo. This really is just a fantastic noir that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. It won an Oscar for best black-and-white cinematography (the category was split between B&W and color for a while) and was also nominated for Best Director and Best Editing.
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