The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man is a GREAT example of Noir, notwithstanding the fact that this was a British production, with a British director and a British/Australian Cinematographer, filmed on location in Vienna. I always associate Film Noir with American crime films, and that’s certainly where the genre developed, but the Third Man conclusively shows that we Yanks don’t (didn’t) own this approach. The Third Man was voted the best British film of the 20th Century by the British Film Institute. I don’t know about that, but it is a must-see film, in my opinion.

Robert Krasker won an Oscar in 1951 for Best Cinematography (Black and White) for his magnificent work on this project, deservedly so. If the film were made today, it might well win again. There is a lot of shadow and darkness in the filming and in the storyline. Camera angles and lighting effects are interesting and creative. Krasker may have been goaded or inspired by the fact that one of the masters, Orson Welles was a star of this film. In fact, one of the great moments of the movie is when we see Welles’ character, Harry Lime, for the first time (after a quite long and interesting build-up). We see a cat rubbing up against the legs of a man standing in a doorway, in the shadows. We remember Lime’s lover mentioning that Harry was the only man her cat liked, and we wonder, could this be…? Then a light suddenly illuminates the face of Orson Welles and we go, “Aha!!!”

There are many other visual delights amidst the darkness and the mystery, including the famous scene on the Ferris wheel, some great angular shots, such as a claustrophobic view up a 19^th century spiral staircase, and the climactic hunt through the Vienna sewers. The final shot of the film is just classic.

The basic story seems simple but quickly grows complicated, with appropriate twists and surprises along the way. It’s just after WW2 and Vienna is occupied by the four allied victors: France, Russia, England and the US, plus – we are told – a central district jointly run by all four. There’s a black market for everything. Anything goes, almost.  Joseph Cotten, in one of his finest roles, is our American protagonist, Holly Martins, a hack writer of Western adventure novels, down on his luck
 and apparently without funds, who has just arrived in Vienna, to take up a vague job offer from his old childhood friend and school chum, Harry Lime. But Harry was just run over and killed the night before, so Holly goes to the funeral. There he meets British Major Calloway (a delightful Trevor Howard) who has been trying to track down Harry Lime for alleged nefarious underworld activities – a shock to the innocent Holly, who had no idea. At the funeral, Holly also lays eyes on Harry’s girlfriend, Anna, an actress , who we soon discover has troubles of her own. Holly is romantically drawn to Anna , played by the lovely Valli (aka Alida Valli).

Holly now has no job, no money, no friend. Rather than pack himself back home, he starts to ask questions, and finds that the stories about Harry’s death don’t quite add up. And we’re off to the races with a pretty good mystery.

What about Orson Welles?  Well that’s part of the mystery, and I don’t want to spoil it. I will say that when he shows up, he justifies his star billing.

The story was written by the great novelist and screenwriter Graham Greene (Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American) who knows this terrain pretty well. The story moves in and out of the darkness. The dialogue is worldly, witty and engaging. The characters are alive and interesting. The director, Carol Reed, gets good performances out of his crew and keeps the action moving along nicely. Reed was already in mid-career by this time, and was quite eclectic. He later directed such diverse films as Trapeze (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, Our Man in Havana (1959) with Alec Guiness (another Graham Greene screenplay), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) with Charlton Heston, and the musical Oliver! (1968).

Valli, by the way, was expected to be “the next Garbo”, which may be why she travelled for a few years using only her last name. She was beautiful enough, she was ‘foreign’, mysterious and reserved in a Garbo sort of way, but for some reason, IT didn’t quite happen for her. She is the female lead in Visconti’s Senso (1954) , one of the next movies I hope to see.