Review LXIV
The Third Man (1949)
I actually came across this film while researching another film. I'm sure I've come across it before, but I spend much more time researching films than I do actually watching them, so I'll remember a movie poster or a plot, but not much else. Anyway, as soon as I saw this starred Orson Welles, I was intrigued. Joseph Cotten, who worked with Orson Welles quite a number of times, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard also play a part in the cast of Carol Reed's The Third Man.
Holly Martins (Cotten), an American novelette writer, is excited to take the job his friend, Harry Lime (Welles), has offered him in Vienna. However, he discovers, as he reaches Lime's doorstep, that Lime was hit by a car, attended to by his two friends and, later, a doctor, and died shortly afterward. He attends the funeral and meets two British Army police officers, one of them being the crass Major Calloway (Howard). Major Calloway encourages Martins to depart from Vienna as soon as possible, but he is driven to the exact opposite when the other police officer, Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), speaks of his writing, resulting in Martins giving a lecture on "contemporary novels". While awaiting the lecture, Martins speaks to Lime's land owner and discovers that another man, aside from Lime's two friends, carried his friend across the street. This leads to Martins questioning whether the incident was purely accidental.
Praises to this film - oh, many praises. First off, I'll talk about the cinematography. My friend had never seen this one but said he had wanted to watch it as it looked "purdy". Guys, it is totally that. Do you ever tear up when you see black-and-white, highly contrasted photographs? Do you ever fall to your knees when you see a beautifully captured film? ... Maybe that's slightly exaggerated, but, regardless, this film is wonderfully filmed. The scenes are brilliantly shot - capturing every individual well - and I love the play with light. The scenes with the running of shadows and all were superb. I know people who are turned off by a film as soon as they see it is in black and white. It's a great shame because they miss great films, and this is one. It's film-noir, so we get the chiaroscuro to the boot. It's grand, real grand.
Now, even though a film can be pretty, it'll be hard to sit through if it's boring - which some of you may believe is the case with black-and-white films. Not with this one. I was pleasantly surprised when I let out a giggle when Martins finds out Lime is dead. While The Third Man is not a straight-up comedy in the least, it has catchy and quirky little lines and scenes (Major Calloway and Martins, please, you guys are fantastic together!). The music might have helped with that, but hey. When it doesn't have funny bits, it is still captive. The dialogue and story are interesting. Even when there were full on German bits with no subtitles (Ich spreche kein Deutsch, sniffle), I was still able to follow what was going on. Still, I'd suggest subtitles for those parts because I would have liked to follow them... Either way, the plot was engaging and not completely stock, and the discussions between characters was wonderful. It gets what needs to be done in 105 minutes, and then some.
Finally, and this will be short, the acting. Well, I suppose you can already guess what I'm going to say - it was great. Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles, as well as all the numerous side actors, all did a grand job at portraying their characters. I bought into the story because of these guys, and they were all cast appropriately.
I'd give the film eight point five stars on ten. I really, really enjoyed myself. This is a film to watch on a Saturday evening, when you don't feel like watching a complex film, but are still engaged enough to laugh at the characters and gawk at the fine, very fine, cinematography.
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