The Fallen Idol (1948)

My viewings since Netflix slowed down deliveries have trended more recent. I had to look back two months for a review of a movie older than this and three months for another '40s entry. But I still have a taste for the era. And despite not enjoying much from Carol Reed, even with help from Graham Greene, I still give him a chance.

Philippe (Bobby Henrey) is the maybe seven-year-old son of a French ambassador in London. For most of the story, his parents are away, and we never see him in school, with a tutor, or with other kids, so he gets into a lot of minor mischief like adopting a wild snake. His primary supervision consists of two servants: Mr. Baines (Ralph Richardson), whom he reveres for spinning exciting yarns; and Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresdel), whom he hates for being a strict caretaker. Philippe observes insufficiently stealthy meetings between Mr. Baines and a young woman (Michèle Morgan) he subsequently claims is his niece. To less innocent eyes, it's obvious why they don't want Mrs. Baines to see them together. Philippe believes he can keep a secret, but Mrs. Baines is too suspicious to remain in the dark for long....

Our Man in Havana (1959)

My prior experience of director Carol Reed, while pretty good, did not whet my appetite for more. But when I saw that he got back together with author Graham Greene, I thought that this might be the closest I'd get to another The Third Man.

Shot shortly after the Cuban Revolution but set slightly before it, the film focuses on a transplanted English vacuum cleaner salesman, Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness). A member of the British Secret Service invites him to become a spy, because such a man doesn't arouse much suspicion. Netflix says he "unwittingly" agrees, but that's misleading: He knows what his employer is and what it expects of him; he just bites off more than he can chew, failing to recruit a team. Too desperate for money to admit defeat -- thanks largely to extravagant young adult daughter Milly, despite her dating the generous local despot (Ernie Kovacs) -- Wormold lies about both recruits and discoveries in espionage. By the time he receives some actual teammates, most notably his secretary (Maureen O'Hara), he starts to worry he'll be found out. But that shouldn't be his biggest worry, seeing as an unnamed enemy agency takes him as seriously as his own does. Burl Ives has a supporting role as a German friend who meets the enemy.

Night Train to Munich (1940)

Fans of The Third Man may well lament that Carol Reed didn't direct much else anywhere close to its esteem. His next best-known work is probably Oliver!, followed by The Agony and the Ecstasy. Not much of a style or genre pattern here. Fortunately, nine years before TTM, he had made at least one other movie reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock.

Actually, the Hitchcock quality may not have been Reed's idea. The two screenplay writers had penned The Lady Vanishes two years earlier. NTtM even reprises the two British passengers Charters and Caldicott as understated comic reliefs with eventual importance to the story. Perhaps I'd do better to recommend it to TLV fans rather than TTM fans. Either way, I must add the caveat of a strong Nazi presence.