The Third Man

THE THIRD MAN (1949)

Directed by Carol Reed from a story by Graham Greene

Running time: 104 minutes Cert: PG

Carol Reed's The Third Man is generally regarded as a British movie masterpiece. The British Film Institute voted it the Number One British Film of the Twentieth Century. It is set among the bombed-out buildings and sewers of postwar Vienna: a city divided like Berlin by the occupying powers and home to black-marketeers, spies, refugees, racketeers and all sorts of shady characters.

Holly Martins (Joseph cotton), a writer of pulp westerns has been invited to come to work for his old school friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles). When he arrives in Vienna he discovers that Harry has not met him at the airport for one very good reason. Harry is dead; killed in a motoring accident. Martins is just in time to attend the funeral. At the funeral he meets a British officer, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) and notices another mourner weeping freely - an attractive actress called Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli).

When he tries to find out more about the accident Martins is at first confused. Harry was killed instantly. His dying words were about Holly.. Two men helped him. No, there was a third man..Everyone he questions seem to be hiding something. They are as guilty as hell. The people Martins question only arouse his suspicion. Something odd is going on. Perhaps Harry's death was no accident? Perhaps it was murder!

The awful truth dawns on Martins that his old pal was not a very nice man. When the major tells him That Lime was a thief, a murderer and a dealer in smuggled diluted penicillin he can't believe it. Not Harry. Not his old friend. However, the evidence mounts up and he has to accept the unbelievable truth. Harry Lime was a corrupt, murdering gangster, loyal to nobody but himself.

After this shock, he gets a greater one. In Anna's flat he strokes her cat which pulls away from him. She tells him that it only liked Harry. The cat leaves the flat and cuddles up to a mysterious stranger lurking in a nearby doorway. Martins later notices this man and the cat as his feet when he too leaves the flat. He challenges him. Suddenly a light from a nearby balcony throws a beam of light on the man's face. Martins is astonished. It's Harry Lime! Harry's not dead after all.

Martins soon discovers that he hasn't heard the half of it. Lime is a real nasty piece of work. In a showdown in a ferris wheel, he cold-bloodedly dismisses all his crimes. “Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if any one of those dots stopped moving forever. If I offered you £20.000 for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man, free of income tax. It's the only way to save money nowadays.” Martin is disgusted and is faced with a dilemma. Should he shop his old friend?

This film has it all. Dark shadows, stylish cinematography, paranoia, a love triangle, a haunting musical score from Anton Karas on the zither and more twists and turns than you'd expect even from Albert Htichcock. Carol Reed's masterpiece was written by Graham Greeene, the author of The Quiet American and Our Man in Havana.

The Third Man won only one Oscar in 1950 for Robert Krasker's cinematography; shot on location amidst the genuine ruins of postwar Vienna. The current DVD release has a superb print of the film with a few fascinating extras. There's archival footage of Anton Karas, the composer of the zither score that permeates the film, a Lux radio play of the movie, theatre trailers a Harry Lime radio play starring Welles and a photo-gallery.