The Third Man
THE THIRD MAN (PG)
D: Carol Reed
London Films/British Lion (David O. Selznick,
Alexander Korda & Carol Reed)
UK 1949
104 mins
Thriller
W: Graham Greene
DP: Robert Krasker
Ed: Oswald Hafenrichter
Mus: Anton Karas
PD: Vincent Korda
Joseph Cotten (Holly Martins), Trevor
Howard (Major Calloway), Alida Valli (Anna Schmidt), Orson Welles (Harry Lime), Paul Hoerbiger (Porter), Ernst Deutsch (Baron Kurtz), Erich Ponto (Dr. Winkel), Siegfried
Breuer (Popescu)
Even those who've not seen The Third Man will
recognise Anton Karas' memorable and haunting zither music, while those who have seen it will instantly recognise it as "The Harry Lime Theme".
Joseph Cotten plays Holly Martins, a writer who
travels to post-war Vienna to meet his old friend, Harry Lime, but is met not only with the news that his friend has met with an unfortunate accident, but also that he's not the man he
thought he was. Holly attempts to convince those spread the bad news that they're mistaken, before an unexpected meeting with the man itself, a delayed appearance which doesn't
disappoint. The character's entrance itself is the stuff of cinema legend, whilst Orson Welles' enigmatic performance makes for one of the greatest villains in film history.
Though it may have been produced in 1949, The Third
Man has not aged one bit and there's far too much quality here for a film review to accurately give justice to, from Carol Reed's taught direction to Robert Krasker's atmospheric
cinematography, making use of real life locations, including dark and dingy sewers, where light and shadows give an even greater air of mystery.
The words 'cinema classic' are often bounded about a
little too gratuitously, but this is a filmmaking achievement where the description fits perfectly.
10/10
