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The Third Man (1949) is a film directed by Carol Reed, with a script written for the screen by
the novelist Graham Greene, who later wrote a
novel based on the film. The story is set in a bomb-damaged Vienna just after the Second World War and is told from the
point of view of a mildly successful pulp author, Holly Martins, who is searching for his friend Harry Lime, whom he discovers
has recently died under mysterious circumstances. He finds that that there was more to Lime than he knew and that he was accused
of being a black-market racketeer, trafficking in poor quality penicillin.
The atmospheric use of black and white cinematography, harsh
lighting, distorted camera angles, combined with the unique musical theme and excellent performances from the cast, all serve to
convey the atmosphere of post-War Vienna, creating the tension inherent in the story, and making this one of Reed's best-loved
films.
The distinctive musical score was composed and played on the zither by Anton Karas (1906-1985). A single The Third Man Theme released in 1950 (Decca in UK, London Records in USA) became a bestseller, and later an LP was released.
Cast
- Orson Welles as Harry Lime
- Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins
- Alida Valli as Anna
Schmidt
- Trevor Howard as Major Calloway
- Wilfred
Hyde-White as Crabbin
- Bernard Lee as Sgt. Paine
- Erich Ponto as Dr. Winkel
- Ernst Deutsch as Kurtz
- Siegfried Breuer as
Popescu
The film won the 1949 Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival, a British Academy Award for Best Film, and an Academy Award for Best Black and
White Cinematography in 1950.
The film was also voted the best British film of all time by the British Film Institute, and in public opinion polls is consistently placed in the top ten British
films of all time.
Such is Orson Welles's fame as a director that many people erroneously believe that he directed the film.
A radio drama series called The Third Man and centering on the
adventures of Harry Lime (voiced by Welles) subsequent to his "death in Vienna" ran for a number of seasons.
A television series was later created out of the film, with Michael
Rennie starring as Harry Lime.
Quote
Looking down upon the people beneath from his vantage point on top of the large Ferris wheel in the Prater amusement
park, Lime compares them to ants, prior to making the now famous remark:
- "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror,
murder, bloodshed - they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of
democracy and peace, and what did that
produce? The cuckoo clock."
(The truth of Lime's statement is in some ways enhanced by the fact that the cuckoo clock is in fact a German invention, and the Swiss do not even have that to their credit.)
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