Director: Carol Reed
Year: 1949
Country: UK
Language: English
The Third Man is often recognized as a brilliant Orson Welles' film, even though Welles did not direct it nor did he star in it. He does have a brief appearance as the bone chilling child killer Harry Lime and boy does he use that onscreen time well. So well that a radio show called The Lives of Harry Lime spawned into existence. Not only is the acting great, but the visual style as well. The king of the film noir, The Third Man is a story of men and children, of heroes and villains. It is number one on BFI's (British Film Institute) list of the greatest british films of all time and deservedly so. I just regret not buying the 2 Disk Criterion DVD before it cost $200+.
Director Carol Reed knew the destruction World War Two had left on his country, serving in the British Army's documentary crew. He as well as his screenplay writer, a former British spy known as Graham Greene, set on a quest to make a film set in the apocalyptic remains of post war Europe. Indeed he defied European film making convention by refusing to shoot on a set, instead shooting on location around crumbled buildings and streets filled with craters where bombs once blew. The shattered European city, divided into various zones for various countries, would be the perfect place for Reed to begin filming.
Holly Martins (Joseph Cottons), an innocent American Western writer who is clearing in the wrong place at the wrong time, comes to the torn Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime but unfortunately for both men Lime is dead...or is he? How did Lime die? This question fuels Martins to play American Detective in a place that has no time for games. Of course in every noir there needs to be a love interest , in comes Anne, a woman he meets at his friend's grave. Maybe she has the answers he is looking for. Of course this romance will never work, she is a woman who is in love and in denial. She sometimes calls holly "harry" in reference to her "dead" lover.
Enter Harry Lime. Orson Welles makes the most iconic entrance in history. His character alone is why most people watch this film again and again. He is evil, yet appears to have child-like innocence. One could say he also has the mind of a child, always playing games, always playing hide-and-seek. Welles also makes the most famous speech in this movie AND the famous chase scene. A brilliantly edited chase through the sewers to find the rat that is Harry Lime.
Not only is the editing, script and acting in this film brilliant but the music is well. Once you hear it, you will never forget it. It's unique, upbeat but without happiness. It sets the tone, the film feels like it will be a fun mystery but we soon find it will be darker than we thought. The incredible lighting is essential for this film, Reed must have had a wealth on lighting technique. It presents the ultimate war torn city, a place where nothing is certain and evil could lurk around every corner. Finally the shots distort locations and faces, make things feel uncertain. Make us get lost in this mad world.
I suspect The Third Man has a lot to say about American and European ideals on good and evil. Americans, like Lime, are childish when it comes to "evil" it is their weakness. They trusts in evil men because they appear to be good. I suspect this is why Americans didn't enter the war until 1941. Hollywood Films like Star Wars and Avatar try to do a decent job on spotting what is good and evil , but they are only making the American mindset weaker. The European mind has been devastated by wolves in sheep's clothing. Shortly after Hitler, you would think the European mind wouldn't think twice. Indeed Calloway, a British detective set on finding Lime, doesn't involve emotion on his pursuit. However he does get angry when he finds the bumbling American getting in the way.
In conclusion, I'm surprised at how anti-Hollywood this film is. It is not happy, it is cynical. It is about betrayal, loss and death. It was made in a city of ruins during a dark period in History. While America was celebrating the war, Europe was rebuilding from it. While America had cast out Orson Welles (the controversy after Citizen Kane left him without an American studio to back him), Britain embraced him. Carol Reed is a master of the British film noir, one that is far better than any American film noir to come out before or after this. Double Indemnity is a joke compared to this. Praise it! 5/5
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