VHS : The Third Man [1949]

Rating: - A masterpiece of movie making and story telling from Carol Reed and Graham Greene
Everything about this movie works. If anyone wants to see how a movie should be directed and edited, or a screenplay written, or complex characters acted, or a film photographed, this is the one to flip in the DVD machine.

Holly Martins, a down-on-his-luck writer, shows up in post-war Vienna looking for his old friend, Harry Lime. But he's told Lime died in an accident, the military tell him to go home, and he's attracted to a mysterious woman he sees at Lime's grave. He sticks around, gets different stories about Lime, but finally understands Lime was an unscrupulous black marketeer, dealing in adulterated drugs among other things. And he realizes that Lime is alive.

Carol Reed was at the top of his form with this movie. His partnership with Graham Greene (they had collaborated the year before on The Fallen Idol and would again in 1959 with Our Man in Havana) is unusual in that both were heavyweights in their fields.

Joseph Cotten as Martins strikes just the right note of charm, inquisitiveness and weakness. He's the kind of a guy who would most likely follow the strongest person around, and that has been his old friend, Lime. And what a great voice Cotten had. Orson Welles, who could be so hammy, reins it in here. He doesn't have a lot of screen time, but his character dominates the movie. And the two work perfectly together. Welles' cuckoo speech has been mentioned so many times in so many places that it has lost much of its charm for me. It sounds to me now more like an alienated high school kid's idea of philosophy. But Lime's discussion of all those little dots goes to the heart of his character. The interplay on Cotten's and Welles' faces as they discuss how easy (or how difficult) it might be to get rid of Martins on the ferris wheel is masterful, and so is Welles as he teases out of Martins what Martins may have told the military police. Alida Valli as Anna is terrific as a woman who loves Lime but has no illusions left. I suspect Trevor Howard took the role of Major Calloway because he wanted to work with Reed and Greene. In 1949 he was a major star in England, with Brief Encounter under his belt. I've always liked him, even in most of the later lousey movies he signed up for.

And the look and sound of the film...glistening, damp cobblestones at night, bombed out buildings, off-angle camera shots, harsh nightime lighting and deep shadows. The chase through the sewers with only the sounds of rushing water and footsteps. The first glimpse of Lime, nothing but deep shadows in a doorway and then a pair of shoes of someone unseen standing there. The sound of the zither playing the main theme over and over.

The ending is one of the most understated and powerful I've ever seen. Lime has been shot in the sewer by Martins. Martins and Calloway leave the funeral in a jeep to catch his plane home. Anna ignores them and leaves the cemetery on foot. The jeep passes Anna but then Martins asks Calloway to let him out. He obviously has feelings for her. Martins leans against a cart on the side of the road as Calloway drives off. The camera doesn't move. Anna, in the distance, walks toward him. Without looking at him she walks straight past, and past the camera. Martins lights a cigarette, looks after her, then tosses the match away. And that's it.

This Criterion edition is just as superb as the movie, and the extras are worth watching. I couldn't tell any appreciable difference in the film transfer quality between the two Region 1 Criterion releases, but this two-disc version has some excellent additionl extras.

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Rating: - huh?
the reviewer who decries welles' ferris wheel speech is totally off base. i can't think of a line in the movie (or in literature elsewhere) that more slyly or succintly sums up the seductiveness of evil and corruption. he essentially turns evil into beauty (art), asserting that beauty is built on the ruins of evil. his lines here are bright spots in an otherwise banal, lumbering movie that gets undue ardour because of its zippy zither score. personally i find the rest of the movie rather dull and unmemorable, and i'm not surprised that the director protested the inclusion of these lines. it puts the rest of the movie to shame.

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Rating: - One of the Best Classic Films made!
ihave to admit that this version can not be given four stars becasue it has been reduced by five minites, something i am very against.

The film itself is about an american, Holly Martin who comes to Europe to start working for a friend of his that he hasn't seen in years. Upon arriving he is told that his friend Harry Lime has been killed in a car crash and had dubious links with the black market and the illegal sale of atered down penicillin. At first, he stays to prove Harry innocent but finds too many questions about his friend, including whether he is actually dead!
The title comes from when Harry was supposed to have been killed. When asked, he is told that two men - both Harry's close friends and business partners - carried Harry's body off the road. When he asks an eyewitness, Holly is told that there was a third man.

the film is a masterwork and typical of director Carol Reed. a great film noir with an excellent cast. the fact that it is in black and white add rather than detracts from the piece that is so rooted in an exceptional time in history that it has become more a historical reference, rather than a dated film.

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Rating: - and wat did they produce?the cuckoo clock....
This is by far one of the best flms i have ever seen. i can't recall the amount of times i have seen it, and each time i have noticed an0ther detail that explains the film a little bit more to me. beautifully shot with the famous orson welles speech at the fairground (watch out for it if you haven't heard or seen it)this is a masterpiece to be frank. the plot is brilliant and i grab such sympathy for both main characters though i know i should'nt because the expressions and language draw me in. this is a fantastic film, nothing like a crap modern bloodbath thriller, this shows they new how to direct and act then. watch it and don't miss out on this wonder.;)

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Rating: - archetype of film-noir
Film-noir definition was born with 'The Third Man'. It's brilliant in every aspect: cinematograpghy beautiness, timeless script, the best actors,... .
I couldn't find a flaw in this one, and believe me, I am some sort of annoying regarding my views to films.
I am proud to own it.