Classics
Classic Revival: ‘The Third Man’ (1949)
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. | The Third Man is a classic film noir that boasts excellence in several areas. The film was directed by Academy Award-winner Carol Reed and was written by acclaimed author Graham Greene, who wrote this story as a novella before he adapted it into a screenplay. The film stars Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orsen Welles. The film won the 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, the British Academy Award for Best Film and an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked The Third Man 57th on their “100 Years… 100 Movies” list of films. The story follows Holly Martin (Cotten), an American author of low-brow pulp western novels, who arrives in post-war Vienna, Austria to meet with a friend who has offered him a job. His friend’s name is Harry Lime, but as soon as he arrives at Lime’s residence he learns that Lime has just recently died of an apparent accidental death. It doesn’t take long for Holly to become suspicious as he begins asking questions, because he keeps getting conflicting stories about how many people were at the scene of the accident. |
| Thus begins Holly’s search for the elusive “third man” who was present at the scene. During his search, Holly develops an intimate friendship with Anna (Valli), Lime’s lover. No one believes Holly at first, advising him to let it go and return home to America, but he persists. Eventually, Holly presses the international police to fill him in on the details of his friends’ seedy underworld life in Austria and Holly finally decides to forget the whole thing … until he sees Lime (Welles) hiding and watching him in the shadows. Now the search is on, with the help of the police, to capture the criminal who faked his own death. Unlike many classics from this era, The Third Man doesn’t suffer from dated dialogue or acting, but actually remains a great film with great performances. However, the most satisfying performance is that of the cinematographer and his camera in collaboration with the director. This is one of the most amazing black and white movies of all time for cinematography, creating the perfect atmosphere for this tale of dark deception and tense, dangerously mysterious environment of post-war Austria. While Orsen Welles is great in this movie, he actually doesn’t even appear on screen until late in the film. I imagine the film’s abundant marketing of Welles as the film’s star was purely to bank on his name. In reality, Cotten is the film’s star. I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in catching up on the classics. The Third Man is available on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection. |
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