Reviews Aug 13 2008 @ 07:00 am
REVIEW: The Third Man
Directed By: Carol Reed
Written By: Graham Greene
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
Running Time: 104 minutes
Not Rated
Carol Reed’s The Third Man is a prime example of what you get when an American movement like noir is adopted and adapted by a talented British filmmaker. Prior to this film, noir was more or less an exclusively American movement, albeit one with roots in European expressionism; with this masterpiece, Reed took the idiom and made it his own. The Third Man has very little of the typical American brashness possessed by most of its counterparts made across the pond; instead, it maintains a much more withdrawn, calculated immediacy. Gone are the ubiquitous shadows and the menacing music; in their place is a slow-burning, meticulous sense of craft that manages a historical and political resonance rarely seen within the genre. The end result is nothing short of transcendent.
The story itself is set in a post-World War II Vienna, Austria, war-torn and carved up by the powers that be: the British, the Americans, the French and the Russians all control roughly a quarter of the territory. Into this scene steps Holly Martins (a brilliantly confused Joseph Cotten), an American pulp-western novelist who’s been having trouble finding work since the war ended. He’s come to Vienna without a penny in his pocket because his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) has promised him work. Martins steps off the train, only to find that Lime has died—killed in a car accident. The more he looks at the situation, though, the more there appears to have been some sort of cover-up, especially when he finds that Harry was deep into the world of organized crime. And perhaps Lime isn’t even really dead.
Though its lead roles are filled by Americans playing American characters, The Third Man is a distinctly British film, and in fact, Cotten plays Holly as what can only be described as a British stereotype of Americans (though not necessarily a negative one)—brash and demanding, with little concern for international affairs and no respect for protocol. The Third Man is missing a private dick, but Holly essentially fills the role himself, openly defying the local British authorities and stopping at nothing (well—hardly anything) in an effort to track down the truth.
This is no mere mystery, however, and distinctly European philosophy colors the proceedings from the moment the film begins. As the very-much-alive Harry Lime, Orson Welles (who at this point had been reduced to making token film appearances in order to fund his independent films) doesn’t appear on screen until the last half hour—but he controls every inch of it, effortlessly stealing every scene he’s in. Lime is the quintessential Nietzschean übermensch, possessing no morals or ethics to speak of, controlling everyone around him, and killing them as he sees fit.
Reed’s distinctive visual style comes into play here, as Lime is consistently portrayed as physically above all the other characters—on the roofs of buildings, at the top of a Ferris wheel (this particular scene is now iconic, of course). For the most part, however, this is a style that’s more subtle than the average American noir, and while Reed manages to throw a Dutch angle or two into nearly every scene, much of the film is well-lit—which makes every hulking shadow all the more unnerving when it appears. This is the sort of masterpiece where every inch of the screen says something specific throughout the entire film, and many of the motifs (note Reed’s subtle use of dogs and cats) require multiple viewings to be fully understood.
The same, of course, goes for the music. Instead of the bombastic orchestral score that features in most Hollywood films of this period (including almost all noirs), all of The Third Man is backed by a solo zither, with music composed and performed by Anton Karas, who before this film was an unknown playing in the bars of Vienna (Reed actually discovered him during the course of on-location filming). The music possesses a lighter, almost comic, touch, which both accents the proceedings and contrasts with them; it’s the final touch that completes a distinctly European take on the American noir.
During the final chase, however, the music—which previously, had accented the suspense to great effect—drops out entirely, even as Lime has fallen from his own heights—quite literally: while he once appeared on the roofs, he has now descended in the sewers of Vienna. As the British army chases him through the claustrophobic tunnels, they do so in silence; all we hear is the thudding of feet, echoing endlessly. Soon it becomes clear why: because there is no suspense to accent. As thrilling a chase as it is, it’s obvious that Harry Lime will not get away; and in fact, he’s been doomed from the start.
The motif of resurrection seems a strange one to find in film noir, pervasive though it may be, until one realizes that the resurrections of noir are always false resurrections. Laura may be alive, but she continues in a tortured, pre-feminist existence, at the mercy of whatever man she is attached to. Al Roberts, by assuming the role of the dead Charles Haskell in Detour, actually becomes his killer. George Grisby’s plan for his own death and resurrection in The Lady from Shanghai ends merely in his death. Orson Welles’s character in The Third Man is no different: much like the title character in Scarface: The Shame of a Nation, whose corpse stands ambiguously on his mother’s porch just before toppling over, Harry Lime (note the last name—and the fact that Reed takes pains to show his mourners sprinkling lime on his body at both funerals) has been dead from the beginning; it just took the reaper a couple of tries to claim his soul.
For all its Nietzschean posturing, The Third Man is ultimately a film that owes more to Marx. The narrative is, ultimately, less about Harry and his philosophy than it is about Holly’s eventual rejection of it. The Third Man’s bleak vision of Vienna is filled with people who have been completely impoverished and alienated by the war—many of whom are killed, and then casually stepped over by the storyline, in favor of the powers that be and the criminals they’re chasing—and is there any doubt that this irony is intentional? The Third Man is, ultimately, a story of “great men” fighting to mold the world into how they see fit (both in the war that preceded it, and in the reconstruction that frames it) and the people they callously trample on their way there. In one of the key scenes, Welles ad libs:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
And, of course, he’s entirely right. In a paradox that the human race is never likely to come to terms with, it’s almost exclusively times of hardship that produce great art. This was true of the Renaissance, it was true of American blues and gospel music, and of course it’s true of film noir and The Third Man. Man’s inhumanity to man is likely to continue indefinitely, but as long as beautiful flowers like this film continue to grow out of the proverbial dung heap, perhaps there’s hope.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 8:19 am 1. Rick Olson said …
Fine review for a fabulous film. It’s the one, I think, that first awakened me to the possibilities of noir. My favorite scene is when Matins confronts Lime for the first time on that pitch-black street. Is there any better-choreographed encounter, or any more iconic entrance than Welles’ amused, eyebrow-raised smirk?
I think you’re right about Martins … it’s an “ugly American” performance, we’re not supposed to like him very much, which makes the film all the more disturbing. There’s nobody we like all that much to root for. We end up rooting for Harry, in spite of the horrible things he’s done, in spite of Nietzschean outlook. What a great film.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 8:22 am 2. Phillip Johnston said …
I remember watching this for the first time a few months ago and not being very impressed with it at all other than loving Orson Welles and thinking the score was kooky.
I watched it again the other night and called myself crazy. I must have been having a bad day when I first watched it, because this film is a masterpiece. Pure and simple. Great review, Luke — the Welles quote is perfect.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 8:27 am 3. Luke Harrington said …
It really is a film that gets better with every viewing. The first time I watched it I could barely even keep up with the plot (mysteries and I don’t get along very well)…then a week later a lightbulb went on and I said, “Wow! That film was brilliant!” That seems to happen to me a lot…I’m pretty clueless.
I totally agree about the encounter Rick…it’s really the sort of thing you can’t get out of your head for weeks after watching the film. (On the other hand, I can’t help but hear a Hollywood producer going, “Come on, Carol-baby, can’t you throw in some gun shots and an explosion?”…yeesh.)
on Aug 13 2008 @ 8:44 am 4. Cinexcellence said …
Gotta love that finale. I’m gonna have to rewatch this one.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 8:47 am 5. Sam Juliano said …
This is an altogether extraordinary treatment of THE THIRD MAN, by Luke Harrington–unquestionably one of the best in the entire Movie Zeal Film Noir series. THE THIRD MAN is my choice as the greatest British film of all-time, a position I am always ready to defend, but Mr. Harrington’s astute and scholarly consideration of the film, fully rooted in context and filmic artistry could be the object of serious study. Movie Zeal has really come of age with this fascinating series, and today is one of the high watermarks.
Prime example of the extraordinary essay:
“Nietzschean posturing”
“the motif of resurection” owning more to Marx………
“In a paradox that the human race is never likely to come to terms with, it’s almost exclusively times of hardship that produces great art.”
“Reed throwing a Dutch angle……..”
“Lime is the quintessential ‘ubermensch’ possessing no morals or ethics to speak of, controlling everyone around him.”
“Gone are the ubiquitous shadows and the menacing music; in their place is a slow-burning, meticulous sense of craft that manages a historical and political resonance rarely seen within the genre. The end result is nothing short of transcendent.”
What can I say, this is top-rank–you can’t expect Movie Zeal to do any better than this, to go any further. This is a treatment for the ages. Congratulations Luke!
on Aug 13 2008 @ 9:54 am 6. Alexander Coleman said …
Very strong, well-written review, Luke–I’ve seen this film probably twenty-five times or more, and it just gets better and better. I almost literally think, after every fresh viewing, “Jeez, it’s even better than I thought it was.”
It’s a highly political picture. I’d say rather than engaging in Nietzschean posturing, Reed merely allows Lime to spout pseudo-Nietzschean gobbledy-gook, which makes his comeuppance all the more appropriate (though it’s hardly a celebratory moment, either, as you note).
Graham Greene’s writing is so wonderful and his story so beautiful, and without that The Third Man couldn’t exist–though as lovely as Greene’s work is, the film adaptation is a rarity that manages to be superior to the source material (all the more rare when adapting from such a sagacious novelist, though it doubtless helped to have Greene adapt his own novel into such a fine screenplay).
on Aug 13 2008 @ 10:02 am 7. Sam Juliano said …
“Ive seen this film probably twenty-five times or more.”
I have seen THE THIRD MAN well over 60 times in my life, including no less than six times at NYC film festivals of various focus and I agree it does indeed keep getting better and better!”
on Aug 13 2008 @ 10:21 am 8. Luke Harrington said …
Thanks for the praise Sam, but really — it’s not all that hard to write a good review when you’re dealing with a masterpiece of a film.
Alexander, I agree that Reed isn’t really engaging in “Nietzschean posturing” — I was merely using that as a bit of shorthand. Your allusion to “Nietzschean gobbledygook” is, admittedly, much more apt.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 10:59 am 9. Miranda Wilding said …
Nicely done, Mr. Harrington.
THE THIRD MAN is truly a five star classic. It couldn’t possibly be anything else.
It’s equal parts wicked and sublime.
When you have a dream cast like that (JOSEPH COTTEN, ORSON WELLES, ALIDA VALLI, TREVOR HOWARD) directed by SIR CAROL REED, it would be almost impossible for it to go wrong.
As Luke so astutely pointed out, the cuckoo clock speech is sardonic brilliance.
ORSON pulls the rug out from everyone. HARRY LIME is the kind of part that every actor dreams of. The other characters and the audience are thinking about you even when you’re NOT on screen – and only a charismatic genius like Mr. Welles could genuinely do this part justice.
The tragedy, of course, is that JOSEPH COTTON’S HOLLY doesn’t get the girl. ALIDA VALLI’S character has some sort of misplaced allegiance to HARRY. She’ll never forgive HOLLY for what happened. But she doesn’t understand what actually took place…and it’s likely she wouldn’t care anyway.
She prefers to grieve for an amoral man who is blatantly unworthy of her. But with Harry’s demise it will be much easier to convince herself that he really was a martyr.
That last shot is brilliant. Hits you like a cold bucket of water directly across the face.
That zither will haunt me for the rest of my days…
on Aug 13 2008 @ 12:09 pm 10. Sam Juliano said …
Luke, your review is here is one for posterity, regardless of the fact that the film you are considering is an undisputed masterpiece of world cinema.
To put my earlier comment of it being the greatest film in the history of British cinema, here is a copy of a list (top 60 choices) I submitted months ago to an e mail poll, specifing my choices of the greatest British films of all-time. Considering the iconic status of the films on this list, it just shows you what I think of THE THIRD MAN:
1. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949)
3. Great Expectations (Lean, 1946)
4. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
5. Kes (Loach, 1969)
6. Black Narcissus (Powell, 1947)
7. Richard III (Olivier, 1955)
8. The Lady Vanishes (Hitchcock, 1938)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
10. Henry V (Olivier, 1944)
11. Oliver Twist (Lean, 1948)
12. Odd Man Out (Reed, 1947)
13. Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945)
14. The Thirty-Nine Steps (Hitchcock, 1935)
15. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
16. Dr. Strangelove (Kurick, 1963)
17. Brighton Rock (Boulting, 1947)
18. A Diary For Timothy (Jennings, 1945)
19. Oh! Mr. Porter (Vanal, Will Hay, 1937)
20. A Matter of Life and Death (P/P, 1946)
21. Dead of Night (Hamer, 1945)
22. The Thief of Baghdad (Powell, 1940)
23. Whisky Galore (Mackendrick, 1949)
24. A Christmas Carol (Hurst, 1951)
25. Henry V (Branagh, 1989)
26. Hope and Glory (Boorman, 1987)
27. Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (P/P, 1943)
28. Distant Voices Still Lives (Davies, 1988)
29. Pygmalion (Asquith, 1938)
30. If….(Anderson, 1968)
31. A Hard Day’s Night (Lester, 1964)
32. A Man For All Seasons (Zinnemann, 1966)
33. Straw Dogs (Peckinpah, 1971)
34. The Tomb of Ligeia (Corman, 1964)
35. The Man in the White Suit (Mackendrick, 1951)
36. Rembrandt (1936, Korda)
37. Deep End (Skolimowski, 1970)
38. Colloden (Watkins, 1964)
39. Fires Were Started (Jennings, 1943)
40. The Red Shoes (P/P, 1948)
41. Peeping Tom (Powell, 1959)
42. The Wicker Man (Hardy, 1973)
43. The True Glory (Reed, 1945)
44. Hamlet (Olivier, 1948)
45. The Go-Between (Losey, 1970)
46. Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975)
47. The Long Day Closes (Davies, 1992)
48. Atonement (Wright, 2007)
49. The Lavender Hill Mob (Crichton, 1951)
50. Becket (Glenville, 1964)
51. My Fair Lady (Cukpr, 1964)
52. The Tales of Hoffmann (P/P, 1951)
53. A Canterbury Tale (P/P, 1944)
54. Oliver! (Reed, 1968)
55. Love on the Dole (Baxter, 1941)
56. The Horror of Dracula (Fisher, 1958)
57. Gandhi (Attenborough, 1982)
58. The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)
59. Vera Drake (Leigh, 2004)
60. The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitchcock, 1934)
Again, I want to thank you for your terrific consideration of the creme de la creme of British cinema.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 2:00 pm 11. Alexander Coleman said …
Atonement ahead of Becket, Sam? For shame. I know you love the former passionately, though, and other very smart people do as well, just not me.
A wonderful list, though. And an excellent reminder that I really need to see Fires Were Started and Love on the Dole. I’m scared by the realization that I’ve seen everything else in that list.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 2:44 pm 12. Sam Juliano said …
Alexander, I know it is admittedly too soon to gage the worth of ATONEMENT in the full pantheon, but I felt it needed to be addressed, as bias against the most recent candidates would be rather unfair. Is it REALLY better than BECKET? Not necessarily, but this is the downside of numerical listings. I applaud the fact that you’ve seen nearly all of these, though I’m not surprised. There are a number of runner-ups here that sadly, were painful to exclude.
As always, thank for the kind words.
I did mistakenly leave off THREE essential British films from the list,(this always happens!!!) that must be there, the silent HINDLE WAKES (1927) and the 1934 musical EVERGREEN, as well as an absolute personal favorite THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER (1990) by a director I am inexplicably smitten with, Peter Greenaway. These three would go somewhere on the list, and the ones at 48, 49 and 50 would have to fall off.
Of the ones that failed to place, I am saddest about LIFE IS SWEET, HOBSON’S CHOICE, THUNDER ROCK, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE STARS LOOK DOWN, THE RULING CLASS, and the ultra-disturbing 10 RILLINGTON PLACE.
Talk about getting off the subject!?! My apologies, I am often guilty of this.
on Aug 13 2008 @ 4:45 pm 13. Alexander Coleman said …
Interestingly, Sam, I was going to take you to task for not including Hobson’s Choice, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Evergreen, Hindle Wakes, 10 Rillington Place and The Ruling Class but I thought the Atonement dig was enough for one post. Haha.
I must see Witchfinder General; I’ve heard so much about it!
on Aug 15 2008 @ 9:10 pm 14. films noir said …
The Third Man ranks up there with Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Grapes of Wrath as one the great English-speaking films: a multi-faceted jewel of a picture.
Both director Carol Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker define a dark and intriguing filmic universe.
The strength of the story is more than the engaging cavalcade of characters in a true human comedy, but the deep analysis of love and friendship, and the imperatives of conscience. Is loyalty out of passion stronger and more genuine than the loyalty of friendship, where the object of affection is amoral and commits despicable acts?
on Aug 17 2008 @ 3:30 pm 15. Craig Kennedy said …
Interesting that films noir mentions Casablanca because I like to think of Third Man as being on the same historical continuum as Casablanca, but the two films are divided by WWII, the same trauma that ripped apart the 20th century.
Casablanca is set on the eve of America’s involvement and there is romance and a sense that America can make a difference and there is hope for the future.
The Third Man takes place after the horror of the war and we can see what a waste it was. America is not portrayed as a rescuing knight in shining armor (Rick Blaine) but a well meaning but blundering simpleton (Holly Martens) who causes more problems than he solves by trying to do the right thing.
Politically you can argue whether or not this country has continued to do the right thing, but either way you can’t argue with that sense of doubt that creeped in after the war and has settled their. Casablanca takes place in a dangerous, but almost comfortingly binary black and white world where good and evil are clearly defined, but The Third Man exists in a fog of uncertainty and indecision.
For me, that moral uncertainty and ambiguity is a defining characteristic of noir.
But I’m rambling. This is a terrific analysis of one of my favorite movies Luke. Thank you.
on Aug 17 2008 @ 4:43 pm 16. Luke Harrington said …
Excellent observations there, Craig — I didn’t really get into Holly as a symbol for the U.S. (though I briefly touched on it), but I agree with everything you say here. Arguably, this distinction can be extended to almost all pre- and post-WWII crime dramas — the U.S. (and the rest of the world) lost its innocence.
on Aug 18 2008 @ 12:11 pm 17. Craig Kennedy said …
“Arguably, this distinction can be extended to almost all pre- and post-WWII crime dramas” exactly and for our purposes I think the comparison really highlights what it is we’re getting at when we think of film noir. It’s an attitude almost as much as a style.
on Jan 05 2009 @ 9:35 pm 18. [review]: The Third Man « …yet made of stars said …
[...] 5, 2009 Cross-posted at: MovieZeal United Kingdom, 1949 Directed By: Carol Reed Written By: Graham Greene Starring: Joseph Cotten, [...]
on Jun 24 2011 @ 4:12 pm 19. Ramon Raup said …
Your blog can get more visitors! You want to become rich and famous? Get more visitors to your website. Search engines love content. When lots of people visit your blog and leave comments, that’s like getting free content for your website. Of course, if you really want to ramp up your traffic then you need a boost. There are some great strategies out there for accomplishing this. I found a system that speeds up the process by quite a bit. The traffic does not just come from one source either. You can get visitors from other blogs, through video marketing, web forums and much more. If you want to take your blog to the next level then this package is something that you really need. Even if you consider yourself to be an expert on getting free traffic, you will find some great information, tricks and tips in these strategies. If you really want to explode your website traffic then check this out. http://cash411.info/go/232
on Nov 10 2011 @ 6:23 pm 20. Eusebia Delpiano said …
Loving the info above all on that World Wide Web orientation , you would rather over great job on the website posts.