Review of The Third Man (1949) by Stephen R — 07 Jan 2010

Carol Reed's "Third Man" is still since the first time I saw it maybe 6 years ago my all time favorite movie. I loved this movie so much, I actually went to Vienna, Austria inspired by that movie to relive movie scenes in person such 15 Stiffgasse (the actual address in Vienna is 5 Josefplatz..less than a few blocks from the operahouse and Burgkino Theatre where 3rd Man is shown every Friday night) where Harry Lyme was alledgedly hit by a van; the Zentralfriedhoff, where Alida Valli does her famous long walk after the funeral at the end of the move--this is the same theatre where Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms were buried; and the Reisenblad (ferris wheel) in Prater Park where Lyme gave his famous "cuckoo clock" speech.

This movie is beautiful on many levels. The footage is of Vienna is capitivating because it is actually filmed in Vienna only 4 years after the end of World War II, so the movie, which takes place in a post WWII Vienna, is visually realistic as damage from the war is still evident in the city scape scenery. That also makes the movie a sort of historical depiction of what a major city in post World War Europe looked like.

The dialogue and conversation is flat out hilarious hroughout as we see english spoken by english, an american, and of course the Viennese between separate characters of gender and culture which always leads to humorous misunderstandings. When I saw this movie at the Burgkino Theatre in Vienna, it was intriguing to note the audiences' response to key dialogues between Joe Cotten's american character and other Viennese characters. Directing dialogue between differing characters with differing contextual graspings of the English language is in of itself, very difficult to screen write and sound convincing.

Aside from the realism and wonderful dialogue, the story is mysterious and full of depth. Superficially, the story is about an American, Holly Martens, a cheap dime store novelist, is invited to Vienna by his fellow American friend Harry Lyme. When Martens arrives at his friend's address at 15 Stiffgasse, he discovers from Lyme's landlord that he was just killed a few days earlier in a freak accident where he was hit by a car by his own personal driver, pronounced dead by his own personal physician, and witnessed by his own landlord. When the landlord tells him there were three people at the scene and the police report indicated only two, he suspects foul play.

Convinced his death was not an accident, he attempts to unpeel the layers behind the story to determine the truth. From there, the story just unfolds into a fascinating murder mystery story with a remarkable twist.

With all the drama in the movie, there are great breaks of subtle humor such as when Holly Martens is bitten by a parrot or when Martens uses tacky pickup lines on Anna, Lyme's "widowed girlfriend.".

There a many great moments of tension and many seens of deep tranquility such as simple footage at the local bar between Martins and Popepscu, "the Romanian.".

Lastly, there's an intriguing European bias of Americans in the dialogue and footage and Holly Martens represents that metaphor for Europeans perception of Naive over confident cavalier/cowboy-ish Americans.

Add to that the simplistic stringed instrument played throughout he movie as the background music, you have an amazingly haunting and unforgettable film noir.

No movie has captivated me moreso than the Third Man. Everytime I watch it, the movie is as interesting and as exciting as the first time I saw it. I think I've seen this movie 10 times now and it's in my personal dvd collection. I do not think a better movie could be made.