The Quiet American

In 1952 Saigon, a young American named Alden Pyle is found dead near a river during the Chinese New Year celebration. Thomas Fowler, a cynical British journalist, had invited Pyle to his flat, and a murder investigation ensues. As Fowler recollects, a flashback reveals how he had become embroiled in Pyle's life, including a complicated love triangle with Phuong, Pyle's intended Vietnamese bride. The film adaptation flips the plot of Graham Greene's novel on its head, turning a cautionary tale about foreign intervention into an anticommunist advocacy of American power abroad.