1953 - THE MAN BETWEEN, A Carol Reed Production

Carol Reed  a talented filmmaker was strong in the suspense genre like Hitchcock. Unlike Hitchcock,  Reed showed an empathy for his characters which Hitchcock struggled with throughout his career. Reed made lots of good movies like Odd Man Out, Outcast of the Islands, The Fallen Idol, The True Glory and The Third Man.

The general rap on him is that he had issues finding the right scripts later in his career. Films from that period were The Key, Trapeze, Our Man in Havana and The Agony and the Ecstasy. Whatever the problems and faults in these later films, they had a fundamental decency which, isn't seen much in modern storytelling anymore. He won an Academy Award for directing Oliver, which is not a film I like but is very well made.

Kind of a follow up to The Third man, The Man Between,  isn't his best film and does have some major  problems.   Its slow moving at times and has a somewhat weak script.  It does have James Mason and a cast of very good actors performing at a high degree of skill.   Filmed on location in postwar Germany, The Man Between still has many fine scenes of suspense and action

A cold war film about innocent people being exploited by gangsters in divided Berlin. The character that James Mason plays is extremely conflicted.  At one point he exploits his ex wife for his own interests and then trying to redeem his behavior during the last part of the film.  Mason works to save an innocent woman trapped in East Berlin during an extended chase scene through the city.

Again, not Carol Reed's best film but well worth watching.

100 minutes screenplay by Harry Kurnitz.