The Third Man
Set in post-WWII Europe, director Carol Reed's cinematic masterpiece begins with the arrival of American pulp writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) in occupied Austria only to learn the friend he had come to visit on his last dime, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), is dead. Despite everyone he meets telling him he should return home, Holly sticks around the city playing amateur detective hoping to learn more about how and why Harry died.
In his time in Vienna, he runs across Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) who was investigating Lime's involvement in a particularly ugly black market trade before his death, Harry's unsavory friends (Ernst Deutsch, Siegfried Breuer, and Erich Ponto) whose accounting of events Holly find questionable, and the woman who loved him (Alida Valli) who, of course, Holly quickly falls for.
The mystery of what really happened to Harry will take the author across Vienna from graveyards to night clubs, towering over the city in a giant Ferris wheel and into the sewer tunnels underneath the city bringing him face-to-face with a ghost and impossible choices where any decision leads to heartbreak.
Cinematographer Robert Krasker would take home the film's only Academy Award playing with light and shadow across Vienna's ruined landscape including giving audiences the greatest reveal in cinema history when we see the third man appear for the first time. The film's score, performed by zitherist named Anton Karas is equally unforgettable and unmistakable.
The film is overflowing with highlights as Holly naively stumbles across characters and events blissful unaware of where they might lead. From Welles' we get his first appearance and the monologue on cuckoo-clocks along with the climactic chase through the city's sewers (much of which was filmed using a body double due to Welles' distaste for the locale). In Calloway we get the manipulative do-gooder using every trick imaginable to garner Holly's support. Anna, for all her faults, loves Harry unconditionally despite his lies and betrayal. And in Holly we get the ridiculous fool, falling hard for Harry's girl while, like Anna, refusing to see Harry for the man he is as romance and mystery end in tragedy.
The film has been released multiple times on home video, including on both Criterion DVD and Blu-ray. The new 4K release from Lionsgate lacks some of the features of the Criterion versions but does offer a 56-page booklet, collectable art, and multiple featurettes on the making and legacy of the film.
Watch the trailer- Title: The Third Man
- IMDb: link
