THE THIRD MAN A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ****
So what kind of a man was Harry Lime? What were the circumstances surrounding his death? And who was the mysterious third man, rumored to have helped carry Harry's dead body to the curb after the truck ran him over?
Director Carol Reed's classic THE THIRD MAN has just been restored and is in the process of being re-released theatrically. Now, with the restoration of the 11 minutes of footage trimmed from the American release by producer David O. Selznick, we can see the film as Continental audiences first saw it. (There were no missing scenes to be restored since Selznick's cuts were to shorten the running lengths of scenes and to cut down the use of German, which isn't subtitled.)
Not having seen the movie in what seems like a zillion years, but which must be less than 50 since the film originally came out in 1949, I was able to look at it again with few preconceived notions.
Set in a post-World-War-II Vienna, the picture does a masterful job of recreating an era of complex politics and a city picking itself up from the ashes. City blocks are full of architectural masterpieces juxtaposed with buildings in complete rubble.
In the story by Graham Greene and Alexander Korda, the ambiguous characters perfectly match Robert Krasker's heavily shadowed black-and-white cinematography. The characters' exact intentions and motivations are up for discussion.
One day, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a writer of Westerns of dubious quality, shows up in Vienna's central train station. He's there to meet his friend Harry Lime, who has offered him a job. Learning that Harry is dead, Holly sets out to investigate.
The military police, lead by Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), are looking into Harry's dealings but don't care how he died. They are happy to see such a notorious crook dead. In an horrific scam, Harry has been stealing and then watering down the city's limited supply of penicillin, which has caused pain and death for hundreds of children.
Alida Valli plays Harry's loyal girlfriend, Anna Schmidt. And, of course, Orson Welles has the part of Harry Lime, a man who doesn't even appear until the second half of the movie.
Seeing the movie again after all these years, I was struck by several things. Although Harry Lime is the central character, Wells has a remarkably small part. His first appearance in the movie has a power and a charm that makes it one of the most endearing scenes in cinematic history. Long after you've forgotten everything else, you'll remember the image of the man hiding in the shadows, whose beaming face is briefly lit by the light from nearby.
With its dominant Austrian zither music, the film serves notice that it doesn't intend to fit neatly into any genre. The music is whimsical, mysterious and sometimes even a little sad. Every time you start to ponder a situation seriously, the music comes up to suggest that things may not be quite what they seem. And it warns us not to take things too seriously.
The writers seem to be just off camera, laughing with little in-jokes that they alone understand. The scene in the Ferris wheel, in which Harry draws a heart on the glass, is one such moment. How is it to be taken? The writers seem to enjoy toying with us.
The overwhelming emotion on seeing it again is to realize how the picture works best on a visual and a musical level. One could imagine doing away with all of the dialog and relying on the pictures and the music alone. Actually, the only truly memorable line is Harry's reflection to Holly. "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," Harry points out with his signature devilish grin. "In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Space operas aside, one wonders which films of today will still be popular 50 years from now. THE THIRD MAN and CITIZEN KANE will still be considered classics 50 years hence, but which ones of today will rise up to join them? This simple question is harder than it might appear since it involves not only artistic merit but also changing opinions. While waiting for the mid-twenty-first century's official classics list, go enjoy some of the sure winners now, like THE THIRD MAN, especially if you're lucky enough to have it playing theatrically in your area.
THE THIRD MAN runs 1:44. It is rated PG for mature themes and would be fine for any kid old enough to be interested, which probably means around 12 and up.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews