Reed began his film career in 1927 as an assistant to Edgar Wallace at British Lion films, supervising the adaptation of Wallaces works into film. After a spell as dialogue director and assistant director for Basil Dean, he had an early directing credit of his own with Midshipman EasyMen of the Sea 1936.Reed soon earned a reputation for his finely observed portrayals of workingclass life, such as Bank Holiday 1938, The Stars Look Down 1939the film which established Reed as a major directorand Kipps 1941, adapted from the novel by H.G. Wells. He also earned attention for Night Train to Munich 1940, a wartime comedythriller which borrowed heavilybut creditablyfrom Hitchcocks The Lady Vanishes. Both films were written by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. These early features confirmed Reed as a capable craftsman with a sharp eye for detail, an unpretentious style and a knack for extracting fine performances from his actors.During WWII, Reed worked as a director for the Army Kinematograph Service and directed the acclaimed propaganda feature, The Way Ahead 1944, starring David Niven. He also codirected, with Garson Kanin, The True Glory 1945, an Oscarwinning documentary compiled from footage shot by Allied army cameramen.Reed hit his peak in the postwar years with a string of features which remain landmarks in English film history. These began with Odd Man Out 1947, a superb hunt drama which follows a wounded Irish revolutionary James Mason through the final encounters of his life. The success of Odd Man Out led to a contract with Alexander Korda, for whom Reed made five films, beginning with The Fallen Idol 1948. A superbly crafted thriller which turns on a childs misconception of adult emotional entanglements, it was followed in 1949 by the directors acknowledged masterpiece, The Third Man. Justly regarded as the finest of the many films to have been adapted from the works of Graham Greene, this atmospheric thriller made superb use of its postwar Viennese locations and featured fine performances from Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles.

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