The Third Man Movie Review
The Third Man is a vintage Graham Greene/Carol Reed collaboration about a serious subject. Harry Lime is no good (he distributes bad penicillin that results in brain-damaged children) and only Western hack writer Holly Martins can stop Harry IF he can find him. Actress Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli) is in love with Harry, but she isn't much interested in helping Holly find Harry, either. Mr. Crabbin (Wilfrid Hyde-White) is VERY interested in Holly; he wants him to speak for the Viennese literary society. After Holly flops there, he tells Major Calloway that he'll help him find Harry if the Major will let Anna get away. After hearing about Harry Lime for most of the movie, we can't wait to see him, and he turns out to be an even better bad guy than we could have imagined. Orson Welles wrote his own dialogue and added some interesting directorial flourishes that Greene and Reed graciously kept in the finished film. Reportedly, most of the fighting on this movie was between producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, who wound up in a lawsuit. Joseph Cotten made such a pleasant, self-deprecating impression as Holly that he extended his career for another 35 years playing mostly pleasant, self-deprecating characters, and Trevor Howard's immaculate performance as the wry Major was followed by nearly 40 more years of wonderfully shaded characters. Alida Valli didn't make nearly as nearly as many movies as her admirers would have liked, but Senso, Eyes Without a Face, Oedipus Rex, The Spider's Strategem, 1900, Suspiria, and A Month by the Lake are among her more memorable appearances after The Third Man. Anton Karas’ zither became famous and Harry Lime was reincarnated as the hero (!) of Michael Rennie's 1960 television series.
1949 104m/B Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Paul Hoerbiger, Frederick Sehreicker, Herbert Halbik, Jenny Werner, Nelly Arno, Alexis Chesnakov, Leo Bieber, Paul Hardtmuth; D: Carol Reed; W: Graham Greene; C: Robert Krasker; M: Anton Karas. Academy Awards ‘50: Best Black and White Cinematography; British Academy Awards ‘49: Best Film; Cannes Film Festival ‘49: Best Film; Directors Guild of America Awards ‘49: Best Director (Reed); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘50: Best Director (Reed), Best Film Editing. VHS, LV, 8mm