| Review: The Third Man DVD | |
| Page One - A Review of The Third Man Criterion Collection DVD |
DVD Release Date: March 3, 2001
Length: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
I've lost track of how many times I've seen The Third Man (1949) over the years, but I doubt that I'll ever tire of this unusual film noir. The Third Man is one of my favorite movies, and I think it's one of the greatest films ever made. I've never enjoyed it more than while watching it on the Criterion Collection DVD, which features a restored print that brings Robert Krasker's moody, expressionistic black and white cinematography to vibrant new life. However, the story in The Third Man is so strong that the movie also plays well on VHS.
In The Third Man, story (Graham Greene), direction (Carol Reed), performances, cinematography, and music all come together to create an unforgettable film. In particular, Anton Karas' unusual score -- played entirely on a zither -- is especially effective. As the opening credits roll, we see in extreme close-up the strings of a zither playing "The Third Man Theme." This music quickly creates the mood. The melody is jaunty, yet there's an underlying sadness and world-weariness to it.
Reminiscent of a first paragraph in a novel, The Third Man opens with a voice-over by an unseen narrator, "I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm..." It's the perfect opening. In The Third Man, Vienna becomes almost a character in itself, framing and defining the story that unfolds. As we hear the narrator's words, what we see is Vienna as she was just after World War II, a divided city where the occupying armies of four Allied forces -- British, Russian, American, and French -- are attempting to govern. Strauss seems but a distant memory.
Shot on location amidst the bombed-out ruins and shrouded in the chiaroscuro of Krasker's superb, stunningly evocative film photography, we see that Vienna is ravaged. Yet some of her former beauty and grandeur still can be seen through the rubble. Throughout the film, oblique angles abound, suggesting a world off kilter; and at various times, there are shots of haunted faces, cemeteries, menacing streets, and filthy sewers -- all often bathed in nightmarish, distorted shadows. These shadows give me the feeling of looking through a veil of decay and corruption. It's as if an edge of chaos is lurking behind every shadow. Visually, this is a city where civilization's hold seems tenuous.
A naive, down-on-his-luck American writer of pulp westerns, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in Vienna to take a job that his old school chum Harry Lime has offered him. Almost as soon as he reaches Lime's apartment, Martins talks to the porter and discovers that Harry has died recently in a mysterious automobile accident. Martins arrives at the cemetery just in time to catch Lime's funeral in progress. At the funeral, Martins sees Lime's beautiful girlfriend Anna (Alida Valli), and he meets Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), who gives him a ride back to the city center.
The Major and Martins have a drink together, and Calloway tells him some unsettling things about Lime, suggesting that his death was hardly a tragedy. "It was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was about the worst racketeer that ever made a dirty living in this city. You could say that murder was part of his racket." Martins is reluctant to believe Calloway and makes a drunken, ineffectual attempt to take a swing at him. Martins is determined to know the truth about his friend. Upon returning to the Sacher Hotel, he meets Crabbin (Wilfrid Hyde-White), who's prepared to pick up Martins' expenses for a few days, as long as he is willing to speak at a cultural meeting a few evenings later. This permits Martins to stay on in Vienna a little longer so he can investigate on his own.
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