10 Awesome Movies With 99% On Rotten Tomatoes

2. The Third Man

Carol Reed's classic film noir may have turned 70 years old this year, but it's still an indelible high-point for the genre, a deviously unpredictable thriller starring Joseph Cotten as a man investigating the suspicious apparent death of his friend (Orson Welles) in post-war Vienna.

With its richly gritty cinematography, fantastic location work, unforgettable musical score and brilliant performances, The Third Man has had a tremendous influence on its genre ever since - and for damn good reason.

Its final shot, which we shan't spoil in case you (somehow) haven't seen it yet, is surely one of the most memorable in cinema history, still being recycled and recalled almost three-quarters-of-a-century later.

Is it the best British film ever made? Probably.

The solitary negative review is a 1994 retrospective piece from The Independent, where critic Quentin Curtis scathingly called the film "as attractive...as diluted penicillin." Yikes.