Carol Reed’s cinematic masterpiece, The Third Man, embodies the noir genre in its purest form, showcasing and capturing all its defining characteristics.
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an unemployed pulp novelist, travels to postwar Vienna, a city divided into four sectors by the victorious allies, at the behest of his childhood friend Harry Lime, who has promised him work. Upon his arrival, Holly learns that Harry is killed by a car while crossing the street. Following his conversations with Harry’s friends, who were present at the crime scene, and the locals, Holly concludes that something’s fishy and the details don’t add up. As a result, he goes against the orders of the Military police officer, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), and resolves to explore further into what happened to his friend Harry. While doing so, he falls in love with Harry’s lover, Anna (Alida Valli), which does not result in the outcome he had anticipated.
Without wasting any time, the film thrusts its protagonist, Holly, into the thick of the action from the first scene, where he learns of Harry’s death only moments after arriving in Vienna. The film’s first half operates like a procedural, with Holly trying to ascertain how Harry died. Holly finds out that two individuals who took Harry’s body away were friends of his; the man whose car crashed into him was also familiar with him, and Harry’s doctor was also present, watching the whole thing unfold from a distance. So, everyone at the crime scene turns out to be Harry’s friend, raising Holly’s suspicions. Additionally, Holly learns that the locals are unusually silent and reluctant to discuss the murder; the lone witness who reveals the presence of the third man near Harry’s body is found murdered shortly after. As a result, an exhilarating plot unfolds as Holly attempts to identify the third man—as he must deal with untrustworthy witnesses, the police, the mounting threat to his life, and his growing feelings for Anna.
An important factor in The Third Man’s success was Carol Reed’s insistence, against the wishes of the producer David Selznick, that the film be shot on location in post-war Vienna rather than on sets. This gives The Third Man an authentic look and feel, making the city an essential character in the film and immersing us in its world. Robert Krasker’s remarkable, stark black and white cinematography transforms this city into an expressionistic nightmare, and the use of Dutch angles—which this film popularized—to generate tension and unease, as well as the use of shadows, lends the film its signature noirish feel. In addition, the unique background score by Anton Karas—whom Reed found in a Vienna nightclub and hired to score The Third Man despite his producer’s warnings—has a jaunty and whimsical quality that stands in stark contrast to the film’s gloomy plot and tone, increasing the suspense and establishing a distinct atmosphere that embodies mystery and melancholy in a world where everything has been reduced to rubble, and people’s mental, spiritual, and physical fortitude has been diminished.
About two-thirds of the way through the film, a significant turn of events occurs that is genuinely surprising. The twist works exceptionally well for two reasons: first, it appears out of nowhere just when you least expect it—Holly is reeling from a betrayal, drunk, and ready to return to America—and second, it features one of the greatest character entrances in film history. In a brilliant and masterful setup, Holly, who is completely intoxicated, exits Anna’s residence after declaring his feelings for her. Outside her apartment, he observes her cat standing in front of a house door and a dark-clad figure standing by the animal, with only his large black shoes visible. Suddenly, the character’s mysterious and haughty face appears in the light for a brief moment before disappearing again as Holly pursues him to no avail.
The Third Man also benefits from the presence of Anna, who represents the film’s emotional core. Holly is smitten with her and has fallen for her. However, she does not appear to be interested in him. Instead, her heart belongs to Harry, the man who helped her—a Czech citizen—in forging an Austrian passport to avoid deportation to the city’s Russian sector. Even though Harry throws her under the bus and leaks her identity to the officials to save himself, she is still in love with and grateful to him, no matter what she learns, probably because Harry played a part in her surviving the war and avoiding displacement. The relationship and the equation they developed during difficult times are invaluable and count for everything, something that Holly will never understand.
Joseph Cotton delivers a brilliant performance as an outsider caught up in a murder mystery and a corruption scandal, surrounded by cynical and suspicious characters. Even though he only has a small part to play, Orson Welles leaves a massive impact, particularly in the scene where he delivers his now-famous speech to Holly aboard the Ferris wheel about how he discovers a way to profit from war, even at the expense of other people’s lives.
The Third Man is a masterwork of cinematic storytelling, with every department working at its highest level of creativity to craft a film that is cherished and remembered even 75 years after its initial release.
The Third Man movie links: Letterboxd, Wikipedia
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