The Third Man
December 9th, 2009
After arriving in post-World War II Vienna, unemployed pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) learns that his friend Harry (Orson Welles) has died in an accident. Compelled to investigate the death, Holly slowly uncovers startling revelations about Harry’s life. Based on a novel by Graham Greene, this classic film noir thriller earned an Academy Award nomination for director Carol Reed and won an Oscar for Best Cinematography.
Orsen Welles wrote his coo coo clock speech for the Ferris wheel scene. That’s the one everyone remembers, but in truth Graham Greene, a wry British post-modern wrote the screenplay. He had Kim Colby, Stalin’s, suave foreign office spy in mind. Carol Reed directed a very Citizen Kane like film in the ruins of 1946 Austria. Everyone will recognize the unusual film angles, scene cuts, and black and white shadows as Orwellian. However, I’m taking nothing away from Reed. This film is as good a European Film Noir as you’ll find. The film glides effortlessly till the ending in the sewers under Vienna. Cotton plays the naive American that arrives in Vienna to take up a job with a flamboyant, immoral, schoolboy friend, Harry Lime (Welles). However, Harry Lime in reality is running a black market scheme in stolen penicillin, which results in the death of hundreds of innocents. Cotton arrives in Vienna to find Harry has been killed in a suspicious car crash. Cotton then runs into Trevor Howard, a British Military, Lime’s girlfriend, actress Alida Valli, and assorted suspicious characters. Nothing is what it seems and Cotton is soon involved in international intrigue. A mandolin plays in the background and it’s very unsettling. Films about the gray area between good and evil and the unintentional foolishness of do-gooders are not easy to complete without created cardboard characters, but there’s no need to fear for The Third Man is damn near perfect, one of the best films ever made.
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