221. The Third Man (1949)

Directed by Carol Reed

Synopsis

Post-War Vienna is a haven for all kinds of racketeers, Harry Lime is one of these, and he has supposedly died, whether from an accident or murder is unknown. His friend Holly has just arrived in Vienna at his invitation just to find him dead. He decides to investigate, until he discovers Harry, a bit livelier than expected. Oh and there's some kind of romantic thing going around as well.

Review

The Third Man is one of those iconic films that is actually a different film in people's minds than on the actual screen. Orson Welles is always being sold as the star of the film, but he shows up in it for quite a short time, as a testament to his acting ability he does steal the show when he is on. Joseph Cotton is the real star here.

There are many stylistic things in the film which are quite interesting, many of them have been prefigured in Odd Man Out, the other Carol Reed film we have already had on the list. The tilted angles, the love of architecture, the fascinating quirky characters, the great dialogue. But Reed does refine that here.


And if Odd Man Out was already a near perfect film, The Third Man is only more so. One of the big highlights for me was the chase scene in the sewers, where the sense of entrapment is brilliantly achieved by Reed. The lighting and cinematography are amazing as well and very much worth noticing. A great film.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1999, the British Film Institute selected The Third Man as the best British film of the 20th century; five years later, the magazine Total Film ranked it fourth. The film also placed 57th on the American Film Institute's list of top American films, "100 Years... 100 Movies" in 1998, an accolade which is controversial because the film's only American connection was its executive co-producer, David O. Selznick; the other two, Sir Alexander Korda and Carol Reed, were British. In 2005, viewers of BBC Television's Newsnight Review voted the film their fourth favourite of all time; it was the only film in the top five made prior to 1970.

Harry shows up: