The Third Man. 1949. Directed by Carol Reed.

(9/9/00)

The music is like something from a Fellini movie--and Fellini hadn't directed any when The Third Man was made. It's strange to hear this exotic music--which sounds Brazilian or like circus music--in a film set in dismal post-war Vienna. And the music is up-beat--which seems to be at odds with the subject matter. It's puzzling.

The Third Man involves an American writer in the supposed death of a friend of his in Vienna. At first it seems that what was accepted as a natural death was really a murder. It starts to appear more and more that a cover-up was involved. And then the friend turns up alive. He had staged his own death and had another man buried in his place.

But was the audience really expected to believe that Harry Lime was dead? I certainly didn't--because I knew that Orson Welles was Harry Lime, so he most likely wouldn't be dead before the picture started. And the audiences of 1949 or 1950 knew that Welles was in the film, were waiting for him to appear, and so could be expected to draw their own conclusions.

And Harry Lime, when he turns up, is quite different from the person his friend believes him to be. He is a criminal, not just a person who steals but one who is willing to sacrifice anyone for his own personal gain. He sells diluted penicillin to the parents of children with menengitis. Some of them die, others go mad.

So it's a story about his friend's loss of innocence. It's about an innocent American who comes to a worldly Europe and suffers a loss of innocence which puts it in company with the novels of Henry James and the films of Erich von Stroheim.

This "loss of innocence" theme culminates when Joseph Cotten's character agrees to betray his friend to the authorities. This is not a moment when he confronts and realizes the evil within himself. It is a moral decision and it is the right one, if painful. He betrays Harry Lime not for greed or to save himself, but after the inspector has taken him to a hospital and shown him children dying as a result of Harry Lime's schemes. His friend is a dangerous, irresponsible man who has hurt people and will do so again if given the opportunity.

It is interesting to me that the unscrupulous Harry Lime who is willing to betray anyone for his purposes is so naive as to believe that Holly Martins will come and meet him without bringing the police. He seems so incredulous when he realizes it is a trap. It just never occurred to him that he doesn't have a monopoly on betrayal. Or maybe it is because he believes his friend is "good"--and being good will hold to certain standards of betrayal that Lime has eschewed. Whatever it is, he becomes pathetic in those last scenes when he is outnumbered by the police and I felt sorry for him.

Lime's betrayal and death is sad, too, because Lime is so dynamic and vital. And charismatic. His entrance is wonderful. He is just a figure in the shadows and then he is illuminated for just a moment. He is so charming in the scene at the ferris wheel that we can't help liking him. He reminded me of both J. R. Ewing and Jack Carson's Hugo Barnstead. He is a charming, dastardly villain, but, as we learn, he is a sleaze who kills sick children with diluted penicillin.

He is so charismatic, in fact, that he mesmerizes his mistress to the extent that she will not betray him even though she realizes that he has betrayed her. His hold on her continues even from beyond the grave. In the final scene Alida Valli walks past Joseph Cotten like a sleepwalker--or, more precisely, a vampire's victim.

The cinematography creates its own world. It's a mysterious, nightmarish Vienna shot mostly at night. There are plenty of tilted camera angles and startling images. This is definitely a film to look at visually. One of my favorite images is of Lime's fingers through the sewer grating when he is desperately trying to escape.

Among the interesting moments in this film are the one in which Joseph Cotten gets into a vehicle which he thinks is going to take him to police headquarters (or something like that). The drivers have their own agenda and it looks like he has been kidnapped by the bad guys. But no, the car is taking him to a speaking engagement he has accepted but forgotten all about.

Then there is the obnoxious little boy who accuses Joseph Cotten of being responsible for the porter's death. He ends up having to escape from an angry mob. Now, that is an interesting touch.