Day 64: The Third Man (1949)

The world of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” is one of shadows and deceit, of lies and misdirection. It is about a war torn Vienna, separated into sections, controlled by other nations, and struggling desperately to provide for its citizens. But, above everything else, this masterpiece of a film is about Harry Lime- the ghost in the machine. Though a British financed production, American actors Orson Welles, as the infamous Lime, and Joseph Cotton, as his best friend Holly Martins, light up the screen in a piece of cinema considered by many as one of the greatest in history.

Arriving in Vienna, following an invitation from his friend Harry Lime (Welles), Holly Martins (Cotton), a writer of pulp western stories, learns that his dear friend has been recently struck by a car and killed, only having enough time to tell his friends Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch) and Popescu (Siegfried Breuer) to take care of Anna (Alida Valli), his girlfriend, and  Martins when he arrives. Saddened by the news, Holly talks with all those who knew Harry and begins to uncover information about his friend and the accident that leaves him even more disconcerted.

For it seems, in this post-war city, Harry had been making a living as a racketeer, peddling stolen penicillin- a still rather new and hard to come by drug. Taking it from military hospitals and selling it on the black market, Lime had been diluting the drug to make even more profit, which, of course, had a devastating effect on those who took it.

Even stranger than Lime’s profession, was how his death supposedly came about. Walking across the street to meet Popescu, he was hit by a car driven by his very own chauffer and, seconds later, Dr. Winkel (Erich Ponto), his very own physician, just happened to be walking along the street and was one the scene to declare Harry dead.

Finding this all strange, Holly talks to the Porter of Harry’s apartment house, who says he saw it all from a window and it was nothing like Holly has been told before. According to the Porter, Harry was dead on impact and three men carried his body to the side of the road. Unsure of who this third man might have been, Holly digs deeper and soon the Porter winds up dead, Holly is accused of the murder and, from the shadows, who should appear but Harry Lime himself.

“The Third Man” is a tightly wound noir thriller considered by many as a staple of cinema thanks to its incredible story, written by the famous playwright and author Graham Green, its unusual score, performed completely on a melodious zither by Anton Karas, and its atmospheric cinematography designed by Robert Krasker.

By distorting the camera’s angles and lighting scenes in such a manner to best bring harsh contrast to the film’s black and white color palette, Krasker gave audiences the most defined example of the film noir style of its time, certainly influencing the future works of Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, and Samuel Fuller.

It should also be noted that the look of ” The Third Man” was directly influenced by another director of the era- Harry Lime himself, Orson Welles. With his directorial work in “Citizen Kane,” “The Stranger,” and “The Lady from Shanghai,” Welles set up a precedent for how a black and white film should look and Krasker and Reed worked off of this template to such a degree that there still is a common misconception that either Welles directed ”The Third Man” or at least help Reed while in production. This idea certainly isn’t helped by the presence of actor Joseph Cotton, who had performed along side Welles in several films and plays. Nevertheless, besides assisting with some of the film’s dialogue, Welles stayed firmly in front of the camera for this picture.

“The Third Man,” to this day, remains a milestone in cinema history and a pillar of classic film, as influential and important to the world as such masterpieces as “Gone with the Wind,” “Casablanca,” and even Welles’ “Citizen Kane.”

To learn more about, “The Third Man,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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