...one of the great motion pictures of all time, presented better than it's ever been seen in the home before.
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The image of a towering Ferris wheel dominates a bombed-out, postwar Vienna. This circular reminder of happier times that were and would be again is a chilling yet reassuring symbol, one of many impressions that stick indelibly in the viewer's mind. Look at any movie critic's list of top-ten favorite films and you'll almost always find "The Third Man." It may not be the number-one choice; that's usually reserved for things like "Citizen Kane," "Grand Illusion," "Rules of the Game," "Casablanca," or "The Godfather." But "The Third Man" will be up there with the best, giving you an idea of the company it keeps.
I came to the movie late, during a college film class in the mid sixties, and it knocked me over. It made my list then and there, and I have been looking forward to owning a pristine copy of it ever since. Thanks to Criterion my wish has come true. Written by Graham Greene, produced by Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, and directed by Carol Reed, this 1949 British noir classic has never looked better.
It isn't hard to see why so many people love the film; it has the right stars, setting, mystery, atmosphere, humor, and music to set it apart. Taking them one at a time, the stars are Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles. Cotten plays Holly Martins, an author of cheap Western fiction who goes to Vienna just after the Second World War at the invitation of an old friend, Harry Lime. What he finds when he gets there is that Lime is dead, the victim of a suspicious "accident." His subsequent investigation into the affair leads him through the shadowy underworld of the city, with ominous whispers and sinister characters lurking everywhere.
Valli plays Lime's old lover, Anna Schmidt, who grieves his loss despite knowing his dubious reputation. Howard plays a hard-nosed British major, Calloway, closely examining the case. And Welles plays the enigmatic figure of Lime himself. A word about Welles and the Lime character: Harry Lime has been described as the ultimate antihero. Surely, Welles's portrayal of him is one of the most fascinating in the annals of film. Lime is built up for an hour before he ever makes an appearance. Then, when he does, we see he is a crook, a scoundrel, a black marketeer; indeed, a rat. Yet the character is so endearingly charming a rogue, he went on to his own radio and TV series! Amazing.
As much a character in the film as any of the actors is the city of Vienna. Marvelously photographed in black and white, the only way to shoot any great film according to Welles, the city takes on an identity of its own. There isn't a wasted shot; every scene serves a narrative purpose. The city's grand architecture, its battered and crumbled walls, its fog-enshrouded back streets establish a moody atmosphere that augments the mysterious goings-on of the plot. What's more, Reed captures the city from almost every standpoint but straight-on. There's hardly a direct angle to be found, everything ever so slightly askew, giving the film a bizarre, surrealistic quality. With everyone in the city looking malign, from children to cab drivers, it all combines to create a world where nothing is as it appears to be.
Juxtaposed to the story's dark forces is its droll wit. Cotten's part, figuratively, is that of the American cowboy out of his depth; hence his occupation as a Western pulp-fiction writer. The part was originally proposed for Jimmy Stewart, but Cotten is perfect, contrasting a suave urbanity with an understated naiveté, ever bumbling into situations beyond his understanding or control. Thrust among gangsters and thugs, his most serious injury comes at the beak of a parrot!
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