Week 9: The Third Man
A cat meows and rubs up against the leg of an unknown man in the shadow. Our hero is frantically running down the alley; he is innocent and must find the truth. The cat meows loudly. Our hero is slightly drunk. He calls to the cat, wanting to know his master. The noise is so loud a woman opens her window and turns on the light across the street- illuminating the man in the alley. The villain looks up into the light at our hero, smirks, and runs away into the darkness. The camera tilts, the world disjointed, as our hero chases after him in the alleyway. The greatest entrance in the history of film is just one of the many great scenes in Carol Reed’s masterpiece, The Third Man.
The Third Man tells the story of Holly Martins (played by the always under-appreciated Joseph Cotten). Martens- a novelist of pulp westerns, is unemployed after the war and is accepting a job offer in Vienna courtesy of his best friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Harry and Holly were best friends for over twenty years, and Holly has not seen him from some time. Needless to say, Holly is shocked to find that Harry was killed by being struck by a car shortly before his arrival in Vienna.
Holly is devastated. Police officers pull him aside and question him almost immediately upon arrival. Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) calls Harry a scoundrel and a criminal. He meets Anna (the beautiful Alida Valli) who was Harry’s lover. Together, Holly and Anna work together to solve the mystery at hand. Holly cannot rest until he can find out what really happened to his friend. How did his friend die just crossing the street? What are the police up to? Why do none of the stories add up surrounding Harry’s accident? Who is the mysterious third man that was present shortly after Harry’s death?
These are the questions that drive The Third Man. In his picture, Reed has created a timeless mystery, a film that defines what it means to be film noir. Reed is one of the great British directors, along with Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean. There is a British sensibility to his shots. While there are many cuts and effects, each shot is made for a specific purpose and there is little extravagance. The fact that the film was written by national treasure Graham Greene, did nothing but help make Reed’s job effortless. This is not a piece of Auter cinema, multiple parties worked together to make this film a success.
Vienna itself is a major character in the story. We are seeing Vienna directly after World War 2, during the time period where it was an Allied-Administered state. The city was divided into four zones, representing the United States, France, Britain and the Soviet Union. This segmentation caused 1940’s Vienna to be a cultural melting pot as well as a city where criminals could easily flee from one zone to another to escape prosecution. The non-fiction of the city blends into the fiction of the story extremely well- Vienna is seen as a beautiful, yet always foreboding place. The streets are cracked and rubble is everywhere. Historic landmarks are next to previously bombed buildings- museums next to war zones. I cannot imagine this movie being filmed anywhere else.
The look of the film is raw and relentless- a true visual style almost unheard of in the 1940’s. Reed and his cinematographer, Academy-Award winning Robert Krasker, create a Vienna shrouded in mystery and scandal. Jump cuts are used to create effectiveness and the editing of the picture established a new way to film action scenes. The camera tells us how to feel. There are soft filters used on indoor scenes of Holly and Anna- they are in love after all. Outdoor scenes, nearly all at night, show the sharp contrast of the buildings with the darkness. Nearly all chase scenes involve the camera being at a slight angle; this is a disjointed, crazy world- and nothing is what it seems.
Anton Karas was a simple street performer when Reed chose him to score the film with his Zither. The student wanted a typical orchestral score, but Reed would not have it. Something about the sound of the Zither sounded uniquely Austrian to him. It was a wise choice. The zither demonstrates the range of the film, and can create moods of romance, as well as moods of fear and frenzy. The score was a major hit in the 1950’s and remains to the day some of the most eclectic film music.
The performances in the film are as wonderful as their era. New Hollywood has not arrived yet, and the presences on the screen are not actors, but movie stars. I have always thought Joseph Cotten was one of the most under-appreciated actors of the era. Seeing The Third Man again after many years cements my theory. Cotton plays an everyman even better than Jimmy Stewart. Alida Valli is equally good as Anna; her soft voice and beauty is always subdued in sadness. There are also excellent supporting performances here. Trevor Howard is spot on with the British Major Calloway and Bernard Lee is almost always amusing as Sgt. Paine.
Then there is Welles. Welles is in the picture less than fifteen minutes total, but in those fifteen minutes he elevates the material to the upper reaches of cinema. Always naturalistic, Welles effortlessly creates in Lime a character that is obviously evil, manipulative, and likable at the same time. We get the sense that Lime wants to live the dream. He puts on a show like nothing is wrong and everything is going well, but we sense he is in over his head. Welles plays Lime as a man that knows he is done for, but is going to die trying to escape.
While this is a Carol Reed film, it would be remiss to deny the influence that Orson Welles, the director, had on the look of the film. Nearly all stylistic inventions that Welles created in Citizen Kane are used to great effect here. Reed’s use of deep focus, visible ceilings, symbolism (Holly walks under a ladder at the beginning of the film), and illusion make is clear the Reed was very much a student of Welles. The look of the film so much looks like it could be an Orson Welles picture that many speculated that Welles actually directed as much of the film as Reed did. This is untrue; Kane just had such a profound effect on the cinema that nearly all great directors would end up using its principles. Reed was just a good student; however there is no denying that The Third Man could never have been created had Kane not come first.
One thing I love about The Third Man, a thing I think makes it classic, is that it mixes genres. It is a mystery, a drama, an action picture and a love story. In most pictures, specifically modern ones, there is one genre the picture falls into and other bits that seem tacked on. How many action movies have I seen where there is a completely unnecessary love story tacked on just to please women audiences-as if women don’t like action pictures? Most attempts at mixing genres fail, or mitigate the whole of a film. The Third Man is rare because it succeeds on every level. This film could be just the romance, or the mystery, or the action, and still be great; the ability to succeed in all categories is what takes the film from being one of the great movies to one of the greatest. The Third Man is an outstanding motion picture from start to finish. There is never a missed heartbeat or dull moment.
The film has four climaxes- each one superb. The mystery climaxes at the realization that Harry Lime is alive and living in Vienna. In bringing Lime into the picture the mystery ends and the story really begins. This is done using the most celebrated introduction to any character ever seen on the screen. The introduction of Harry Lime is one of the great images of the movies.
The culmination of the dramatic arc takes place at Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna’s famous giant Ferris wheel. It is here where Holly and Harry meet and speak for the first time in the film, and the conversation they have is outstanding. Welles gives the bulk of his vocal performance here. Regardless of how good Cotten is, Welles always elevates the material. The camera spins along with the two men as they ride the Ferris wheel and discuss their predicament. The Ferris wheel is a spectacular set-piece- early images of the film show the word at an angle, slightly askew. The Ferris wheel literally turns the world upside down. The scene ends with one of Welles best speeches in the movies, improvised by Welles himself:
“`You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.'”
The scene that follows is a great chase sequence through the streets and sewers of Vienna. It is here where the beauty of the films black and white really begins to take hold. The shadows in the sewers along with the water create an atmosphere that is oppressive and beautiful at the same time. The sewers create a labyrinth under the city, and Holly and the police chase after Lime in a maze of dark tunnels and passageways. The camera is always moving, always cutting, and panning. We become dizzy and confused, truly lost in the maze. We care about our characters, all of them, even Harry. We want Harry to get away just as much as we want Holly to catch him. The ending scene of the chase- where Holly actually does catch Harry is timeless. We care about Holly- pity Harry, and know that it ends the way it needs to.
In many ways, The Third Man is the companion film to Casablanca. Both films involve the war, both films mix genres, both films contain love stories. Casablanca was released at the beginning of the 1940’s, during the height of the war. In that film, there was a sad ending that left the viewer with hope- the main characters give up love because of a greater purpose- the hope for a better world. The Third Man tells in many ways the same story, exact flipped. Casablanca shows a half full glass of water, while The Third Man shows a glass half-empty. The paranoia that will lead to the Cold War is beginning to sit in. Our main characters give up love not because of a greater purpose, but a pessimistic one. The ending of The Third Man is perfect. Lime has been killed. Holly is getting ready to leave Vienna. Holly is in a car with the Major and sees Anna walking down the street. Holly loved Anna, but Anna loved Harry. It did not matter that Harry was evil, only that she loved him. Holly stops to talk to Anna and we long for the embrace, the apology, the happy ending. Instead, Anna just keeps walking and not looking back. The war is over, but the world will never be the same again.
Review and Analysis by Shaun Henisey
Click here to discuss The Third Man.
The Ending of the Third Man
The Greatest Entrance
The Cuckoo Clock Speech
Cast and Credits:
Holly: Joseph Cotton
Anna: Alida Valli
Maj. Calloway: Trevor Howard
Harry Lime: Orson Welles
Criterion presents A David O. Selznick Release. Directed by Carol Reed. Screenplay by Grahamn Greene. Photographed by Robert Krasker. Music by Anton Karas
Running Time : 104 minutes. Not Rated. (Suitable for all but small children.)