Reed directing Mark Lester in Oliver!
Carol Reed
3 titles, 71st in points with 11,909
These are all the films of classic British director Carol Reed’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.
1. The Third man (1949) bw#23
2. Fallen Idol, The (1948) #490
3. Odd Man Out (1947) bw #634
Mostly noted for the noirish The Third Man (which I found spoiled by incessant zither music), I actually prefer Odd Man Out (featuring a young, intense James Mason) and his adaptation of Conrad’s novel Outcast of the Islands (1951), with Trevor Howard as a white man in a tropical island paradise (in Malaysia) who sells his soul for money. This film should be ranked, it’s the best adaptation, to me, of any of Joseph Conrad’s novels, who was Polish but learned to write in English as he considered it the language of literature. His resulting works are terrific, especially the shorter ones like this, Heart of Darkness, Almayer’s Folly (the prequel to this story, which also stars Robert Morley as Almayer, a British merchant in the same Malaysian islands), and The Nigger of the Narcissus.
Also missing is his musical adaptation of the stage musical based on Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Oliver! (1967) [photo top] and which won the best picture Oscar® for that year.
See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition
Few people can hear and see equally well. For those who can, Karas is as important to the atmosphere of The Third Man as any member of the cast.
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