A later collaboration between Mason and Carol Reed, The Man Between is often considered a companion piece to The Third Man thanks to its atmospheric portrayal of a city struggling to survive in a grim post-war reality of poverty and mistrust. The action is here transposed to a divided Berlin, and to the beginning of the Cold War. Unlike the devilish Harry Lime, Mason’s world-weary dealer Ivo Kerr is ultimately still a decent man, compelled by his love for a naïve schoolteacher to make one last misguided trip through the Brandenberg Gate, with potentially tragic consequences.
