The British film industry reflected those changes, particularly in the thrillers that were made.
It was a period of vivid, ambitious, and surprising films.
Theres no better way to imagine yourself in their shoes than to watch what they watched.
Perhaps they were afraid of comparisons between Boyers performance and Anton Walbrook.
Walbrook was a mesmerizing Austrian-born actor who left his homeland in 1937 to live in the UK.
Walbrook was a great actor.
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Gaslightis claustrophobic, and paranoiac, and downright nasty.
Night Train to Munich (1940)
Carol Reed directed this crowd-pleasing adventure.
The film has some great set pieces.
They all live in a very spooky castle where things go bump in the night.
Its a very slow start to this mystery, but luckily Marius Goring is lots of fun.
Howard produced, directed and starred in the film, and it is very funny, and very moving.
Howard gave people more than entertainment.
He gave them courage.
Yes, he was a rip-off of Sherlock Holmes, but with more fisticuffs and sexiness.
The plot doesnt make much sense.
But it contains a fascinating detective who changed with the times.
There were books, TV and Radio serials, comic strips and numerous films of Sexton Blakes adventures.
I See A Dark Stranger (1946)
This is a really interesting film.
Its a thriller with comic elements, and the main character hates the English.
Katie Johnson makes a quick and entertaining appearance in this film.
Youll know her when you see her; she was Mrs Wilberforce inThe Ladykillers.
In that film, and in this one, she appears in the credits only as The Old Lady.
She also appears briefly in another film on this list Gaslight.
She was a theatre actress who only made a handful of films later in life.
But they were good ones.
But the robbery goes wrong, and Johnny is wounded.
There are dream sequences and strange effects as Johnnys grip on reality lessens.
Its a story of redemption, and it places you firmly in the shoes of the main character.
Mason gives a moving performance even though his Irish accent isnt always convincing.
William Hartnell (the first Doctor Who) is great he makes an appearance as a hard-nosed publican.
Everything builds to a very beautiful final scene that shows just what an amazing director Carol Reed was.
The result was this very tense and surprising psychological thriller that plays with time and perspective.
Michael Joyce (Mason) is a celebrated surgeon who is giving a lecture to a group of students.
Brighton looks seedy and rainswept, and drink, sex and violence pervades the pubs and the pier.
William Hartnell is in this too, and gives a real authority to his role as Pinkies second-in-command.
Like many Greene novels, theres a strong sense of retribution to this story.
The smallest betrayals have profound effects, and come back to haunt us.
Everything aboutThe Third Manhas become iconic.
But theres also humour of the darkest kind inThe Third Man.
Its an easy film to get caught up in.
Theres a murder mystery that deepens, and a kind of a love story.
Its no different throughout the history of film.
We need a villain to hate, someone to represent the worst of the world.
Sometimes that villain comes from a culture that were at war with, physically or ideologically.
But sometimes, in the most challenging films, that villain looks no different from us.
