Somehow or other, I missed seeing this movie all these years. I’m kind of glad I did, because I’ve seen many if not most of all the classic four star movies and it’s spellbinding to see something as good as this for the first time as an adult.
Jeez, what a unique, brilliant film! The camera angles and cinematography were peculiar and riveting, along with the film noir lighting. That scene where Harry Lime (Orson Welles) makes his first appearance was hypnotizing and so well-choreographed that it gave me the shivers. Still does. His second appearance at the fairgrounds (walking into the frame from a long distance away) was almost as deliciously tense. The last scene at the cemetery with Anna is also going to be stuck in my head for a long, long time (together with that zither music).
This sure had the look and feel of an Orson Welles film, but I was surprised to see that he had not directed it; it was a British director whose name escapes me right now.
A year ago, I had my VCR set up to tape this classic, which I had also never seen. I forget which network, but I think it was either Bravo or GLTV.
Alas, the schedule had changed unexpectedly, and I ended up taping *One Rainy Afternoon, instead.
I did catch up with this movie for the first time in the past month. I can’t really add to anything you’ve already said.
For 30 years out of 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
*I think this movie featured an actor that shows up in a number of old Warner Bros cartoons, a giggling chap by the name of Hugh Herbert–a Walter Matthau-ish look fellow who, when he shows up, is just sorta looking at the camera, fluttering his hands around and giggling.
The director’s name was Carol Reed.
He also directed Odd Man Out (w/ James Mason),A Kid for Two Farthings and Fallen Idol.
Another scene I like is where Holly Martins lectures to a Literary Appreciation group, where they ask him about James Joyce (ever-fashionable), but he talks about Zane Grey.
There was another movie, released the year before The Third Man, called He Walked By Night. This movie’s climax is also in a sewer. I’ve always wondered if there was a connection…
Alida Valli, who plays the girl and never smiles. The second time you see it, you notice that her first appearance in the film is as an actress in a ridiculously mannered farce, and she is all smiles and coquettishness. Such a contrast to the flat despair she lives in, all throught the film.
Often when I make coffee I think of the moment in her flat, when she does so, and you are aware of how rare it was at one time to taste actual coffee.
A point that may interest you. WARNING SPOILER
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When the film was first released in Great Britain, the cinemas were in the habit of playing the british National Anthem immediately after the movie finished. Audiences all stood in place, often restive and shuffling towards the exits. Frequently people would slip out of the cinema just as the movie ended. So, as Joseph Cotton waited for Allida Valli to walk up to where he was, many assumed that there would be the conventional clinch at the end and just left. Imagine missing that devastating moment when she just walks past!! One of the best moments in the film.
As is the image of the fingers reaching through the grating, to the sound of the breeze…
A classic that stays rivetting no matter how many times you see it.
I always wondered, too. I assume it was something like “Oh, there’s the man who was here just before the landlord was MURDERED! Yes, that’s the man, all right! Hello, Man! MAAAAAAAN!”
Any German-speakers who can give us the Straight Dope?
Yeah, I’ve always wondered what the little kid is saying, too.
By the way, the DVD is one of the finest I’ve ever seen. It’s got all sorts of interesting tidbits above and beyond the traditional trailers and Peter Bogdanovich pontifications. Among them are:
A reading of Graham Greene’s “treatment,” a sort of early novelization of the script, which can be played as the audio track of the film.
A short film of Anton Karas playing the theme in a London restaurant.
Both the British and the American introductions. The British version was narrated by Carol Reed himself, is subtly different. It makes Holley Martins out to be a small-time racketeer as well as an author. It is mentioned that eleven minutes of footage were cut by Selznick in order to present Martins in a better light.
A demonstration of the results of the film restoration project.
It is universally believed that despite the similarity of The Third Man in many ways to Welles’ own better films, Welles stayed well away from meddling in Reed’s direction of the film; it’s all his. With one exception. Welles came up with the “cuckoo clock” line himself.
I love this movie. The odd camera angles, the shadows, remind me of german expressionism. I have not seen ot for a few years, but is is an all time favorite. I have a few questions for any movie buffs out there:
(1) Carrol Reed: did he by chance wind up running a ski shop in New Hampshire? For many years I remember seeing this shop-it was off Rt. 93, just south of Lincoln, NH
(2)a TV series (loosely based on THE THIRD MAN)ran for a few years in the late 1950’s-I believe the Harry Lime character was played by the late Michael Renny (of “THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL” fame). Anybody know if tapes of this show are available?
Finally, is a colorized version available?
As to your first question, yes, Reed did decide to give up the glamor and easy sex of the film life in order to operate a small-time ski shop in rural New Hampshire. Around the holiday season he expanded into local crafts…wood carvings f creches, tree ornaments, things like that.
After a few years this became so popular that he was known throughout the White Mountains as “Christmas Carol.”