The Third Man. (PG.)
Directed by Carol Reed. 1949.
Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Paul Hoerbiger, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Bernard Lee and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Black and White. 104 mins. In Cinemas for one day only, Sunday September 29th for its 70th anniversary. Screenings will be followed by a Q&A with crew member Angela Allen and screenwriter Hossein Amini
If you were to write a check-list of all the elements needed to make a classic, mainstream movie, The Third Man would tick just about every box: a great title, strong characters, perfectly cast right down to the smallest role, a memorable small cameo by a big name, a narrative that is exciting and dramatic yet profound, a unique setting, startling visuals, a distinctive musical score and an unforgettable ending. It may not be the greatest film ever made, (though it would surely place) but it's one of the films whose greatness is almost entirely objective. I guess there must be a bad review of it somewhere out there but the levels of cussed, bloody-mindedness needed to create one would surely be better used walking barefoot to the South Pole or hopscotching naked along the Great Wall of China – and not doing it for charity.
If you need reminding, the unique setting is post-war Vienna, sliced up into four sectors and divided up into British, American, French and Soviet control, shot as a city of long shadows and bomb rubble. The story is about American Holly Martens (Cotten), a writer of cowboy novels, arriving to hook up with his old pre-war buddy Harry Lime (Welles, the memorable big name small cameo.) Discovering Lime has died in a car accident he goes investigating and stirs up the British military (Howard), various black-market elements Lime associated with (Deutsch, Ponto, Breuer), his old girlfriend (Valli) and eventually, of course, Lime himself. The distinctive music is Anton Caras's zither score which is up there with Monty Norman/ John Barry's Bond theme, Morricone's Good, the Bad and the Ugly, John Williams Jaws and Close Encounters and Herrmann's Psycho as music that defines a movie.
In this unusual gathering of artistry, the frontman always seems to be looked past in any appreciation of the film. Vienna is a city sustained by spivs, but even with his wavy Sid James hairdo, Holly Martens (Cotten) remains an all-round rube. It's hard to believe Cotten was ever a big star, he seems to be a performer doomed to be looked past, to exist in the shadows: all qualities that made him ideal for the lead in this film. Martens is an uncanny prediction of America's post-war foreign policy blunders, a straight arrow who refuses to bend to the realities of a morally fluid situation, blithely charging around seeking justice and getting everybody else killed in the process. Because its Cotten though you still side with him; his naivety is forgivable.
Everybody and everything is so perfect in The Third Man that it is foolish to pick one contribution above the other, but I think maybe writer Graham Greene is the most important element, the voice that speaks loudest. Greene worked as a film reviewer, a position for which is was hopelessly ill-suited being as he actually knew something about the subject. His script for this is a perfect piece of screenwriting. This is partly because he was always coming up with little bits of business to distract viewers from the plot mechanics each scene was delivering. This is a plot-driven thriller, that feels like a character piece, but a character piece that is always on the move, heading on towards its conclusion. Even more impressive though is the way such a great novelist was able to adapt effectively to a different form, a different discipline, yet retain the same voice. On the one hand it would be ridiculous to describe it as his work when so many talented people did so much to shape it, yet I think if you were listing Graham Greene's greatest achievement it would have to be up there with The Power and the Glory, The Heart of The Matter, Brighton Rock and The End Of The Affair.
Directed by Carol Reed. 1949.
Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Paul Hoerbiger, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Bernard Lee and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Black and White. 104 mins. In Cinemas for one day only, Sunday September 29th for its 70th anniversary. Screenings will be followed by a Q&A with crew member Angela Allen and screenwriter Hossein Amini
If you were to write a check-list of all the elements needed to make a classic, mainstream movie, The Third Man would tick just about every box: a great title, strong characters, perfectly cast right down to the smallest role, a memorable small cameo by a big name, a narrative that is exciting and dramatic yet profound, a unique setting, startling visuals, a distinctive musical score and an unforgettable ending. It may not be the greatest film ever made, (though it would surely place) but it's one of the films whose greatness is almost entirely objective. I guess there must be a bad review of it somewhere out there but the levels of cussed, bloody-mindedness needed to create one would surely be better used walking barefoot to the South Pole or hopscotching naked along the Great Wall of China – and not doing it for charity.
If you need reminding, the unique setting is post-war Vienna, sliced up into four sectors and divided up into British, American, French and Soviet control, shot as a city of long shadows and bomb rubble. The story is about American Holly Martens (Cotten), a writer of cowboy novels, arriving to hook up with his old pre-war buddy Harry Lime (Welles, the memorable big name small cameo.) Discovering Lime has died in a car accident he goes investigating and stirs up the British military (Howard), various black-market elements Lime associated with (Deutsch, Ponto, Breuer), his old girlfriend (Valli) and eventually, of course, Lime himself. The distinctive music is Anton Caras's zither score which is up there with Monty Norman/ John Barry's Bond theme, Morricone's Good, the Bad and the Ugly, John Williams Jaws and Close Encounters and Herrmann's Psycho as music that defines a movie.
In this unusual gathering of artistry, the frontman always seems to be looked past in any appreciation of the film. Vienna is a city sustained by spivs, but even with his wavy Sid James hairdo, Holly Martens (Cotten) remains an all-round rube. It's hard to believe Cotten was ever a big star, he seems to be a performer doomed to be looked past, to exist in the shadows: all qualities that made him ideal for the lead in this film. Martens is an uncanny prediction of America's post-war foreign policy blunders, a straight arrow who refuses to bend to the realities of a morally fluid situation, blithely charging around seeking justice and getting everybody else killed in the process. Because its Cotten though you still side with him; his naivety is forgivable.
Everybody and everything is so perfect in The Third Man that it is foolish to pick one contribution above the other, but I think maybe writer Graham Greene is the most important element, the voice that speaks loudest. Greene worked as a film reviewer, a position for which is was hopelessly ill-suited being as he actually knew something about the subject. His script for this is a perfect piece of screenwriting. This is partly because he was always coming up with little bits of business to distract viewers from the plot mechanics each scene was delivering. This is a plot-driven thriller, that feels like a character piece, but a character piece that is always on the move, heading on towards its conclusion. Even more impressive though is the way such a great novelist was able to adapt effectively to a different form, a different discipline, yet retain the same voice. On the one hand it would be ridiculous to describe it as his work when so many talented people did so much to shape it, yet I think if you were listing Graham Greene's greatest achievement it would have to be up there with The Power and the Glory, The Heart of The Matter, Brighton Rock and The End Of The Affair.