Finally !! A film reviewer who knows film!! Someone who looks beyond the action of the film to get to the statements the film is trying to make. I am so at home here !!

This might be the first reaction of The Third Man on KZfaq thanks for doing it.

As an Austrian I adore this film! The shot with the cat is one of my favourites ever. :-) And it's somehow funny, what an "anti-hero" Joseph Cotten is. Nobody takes him serious, since he is an "ordinary" American. But the most interesting thing about this film is, how Harry Lime gets the main character, although he has not very much screentime. And I love the very last shot: When Joseph Cotten waits for the girl. A perfect ending.

Harry is a monster, but he is a thoroughly modern monster. He personifies the indifference, brutality, and selfishness of the worst aspects of capitalism, but manifested in Welles’ charming swagger. In the post war world vampires, werewolves, and mummies can’t compare to the real horror of a world full of Harry Limes. The hospital scene reveals the real stakes here that Martens has been trying to ignore, and he does, ultimately, find himself as a sort of tarnished hero (there’s no other kind in film noir) but the victory, while necessary, is a hollow one.

“Orson Welles wrote his own dialogue and the fingers coming through the grill was his idea but with Welles not being in Vienna at the time the fingers were Carol Reeds.”

Europe has never really recovered from the effects of the two world wars. America went about its business of building homes and roads. It had to redefine itself as a world superpower. In 10 or 20 years, the efforts produced a brief period of innocent pleasures from the 'hippys' but that soon faded too. The darkness of folks who have become disenchanted and have lost the illusion of a meaningful life is now omnipresent here too. It took the wisdom of C.S. Lewis to try to console England during the war, and his writings still apply. I love your interest in film's place as a mirror to society, historically speaking. I do wonder what the current state of media tells you about our present condition. I also love your careful manners while speaking (correcting yourself in pronunciation etc.) Very few reactors are as articulate and research oriented as you. You have earned yourself yet another subscriber. A good example of a more recent film noir is 'Blood Simple' (1984) by the Coen brothers. Someone else recommended 'Momento', but editing that one, with it's backwards storytelling, would be quite a beast.

Nice review. Thanks. That's the thing about Harry Lime - we and the other characters really want him to be a lovable rogue, the Hans Solo type who will do the right thing in the end... but he isn't. He really IS a bastard through and through. His natural charm is a weapon.That's how the most successful con men work. The film is quite brilliantly and subtly merciless in the way it manipulates and then awakens our understanding of his true nature. Yet, we still hope he'll get away at the end! What suckers we are for that... and the film knows it. 🙂 Fantastic movie.

When Orson makes his entrance, your reaction was priceless. I actually watched this the other day and never commented, I really, really enjoyed this. I hope you do some more Orson! Touch Of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons , The Stranger definitely....that's almost a month of Orson right there! The Lady From Shanghai was mutilated by the studio, but has classic sequences. His Shakespeare films are all great. Thanks, Mia!!!! I am so excited to have seen a reaction video for The Third Man! :D

I fell in love with this film the moment I heard the introductory zither music. What followed did not disappoint especially the moment of Lime's dramatic appearance in the light from the window above.

Some classic noir of the 40's- "Out of the Past", "Crossfire", Murder, My Sweet", " Laura" and "The Big Sleep"

for some bizarre reason i started this video thinking "oh god, here we go..." but was totally turned around. your insights and patience are wonderful and you've earned yourself a sub. thank you for taking the time to make this.

The Third Man is about a man having all of his illusions about the world and his place in it shattered one by one, with the last pane in the window being broken in the closing shot when Anna walks by Holly without even acknowledging his existence. And at a symbolic level, it's about the United States and the position it was in after the war. In a way, the movie is saying that the U.S. would have to grow up if it was to be a world leader. Holly Martins made his living writing pulp westerns, which have a simplistic good-versus-evil world view, but that doesn't work in a place like post-war Europe. Orson Welles wrote the cuckoo clock monologue. It's a very famous speech that underscores Harry Lime's cynicism. And Lime was a cynic (among other things) - a man with no faith in human nature, who uses his bitter view of humanity to excuse his actions. The tilted perspective of so many of the shots is called "Dutch angle." It was used a lot by the German expressionist directors. The technique gives the movie an unsettled feeling. The closing shot took a lot of guts on the part of Carol Reed. A minute and a half with nothing but one character walking toward the camera while another stands off to the side is a lot of screen time while very little happens. I don't think any director (or editor) would do that today. But the length of the shot helps it build tension, which breaks when Anna walks past and out of the shot. It's my favorite closing shot of all time. One of the many things I love about this movie is that Holly is never portrayed as some sort of great hero. He's over his head through most of the story, and is reluctant to betray his old friend even though he learns how bad Lime really is. Holly isn't even a very good writer. He's just a guy who gets drawn into a dangerous world without knowing what he's getting himself into. Little things I love in The Third Man include Holly walking under a ladder on his way to the hotel, the balloon man (and his shadow) almost blowing their cover as they lay in wait for Harry Lime, and the symbolism of Lime dying in a sewer. Thanks for another great reaction!

One of the first films I ever saw, along with "Kane" and "2001," to make me realize: THIS is what a movie *can do.* Next level. Still is.

How HANDSOME are Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles here? Okay, I feel better. "The Thin Man Theme" was a HUGE hit as an instrumental, even into the 60's. The Iconic shot for me is when Holly sees Harry in the doorway at night and Harry has that knowing smile. Just perfect.

I adore this song!!!!!!!!!!I play it whenever I get the chance!!!!!!

Best Noir, Double Indemnity, Out of the Past and the French film Rififi. Noir certainly reached it's height in America in the late 40s and 50s, but there were pre-war Noir Films as well. This was especially true in Germany with films such as the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and M (1931). Keep up the great work Mia!

Anyone who knows Greene's writing will be familiar with his interest in broken, imperfect Messiahs. In the Third Man, he went for his least subtle exposition of this motiff. Yet it is so well done. The dialogue is finely tuned. The pacing is perfect.

Excellent review of one of my all-time favourites.

I am really glad that you covered this movie because it is my all-time favourite. I envy you for seeing it for the first time. It's a treat to watch your enthusiasm and your confusion! I love the tentative romance between Holly and Anna. No kissing. And that beautiful, ambiguous ending. It's just the best.

One of my favorite film noir, along with The Big Sleep and Night of the Hunter

Orson Welles' first appearance in the doorway, alongside Omar Sharif's long, slow approach out of the desert in Lawrence of Arabia, are surely the two greatest entrances in all cinema.

This film had such a unique "look" to it. Someone told me this film should be colorized. I said that colorization would have completely ruined the entire "feel" of the film. I've always liked the stellar use of camera angles and overall cinematography. Mia, it's wonderful to know that younger people are discovering and appreciating the classic films. Cheers -- W

A couple of remarks from a Vienna resident: The Third Man was shot in Vienna in the immediate postwar years where there was great poverty and even greater insecurity. The damage you see in the film was cleaned up in the years that followed. The Sound of Music was NOT shot in Vienna at all, but in Salzburg, a much smaller city of chiefly cultural importance that had remained undamaged during the war. (And of course, by the mid-60s, Vienna was no more the rubble heap either.) About the music: Anton Karas was a professional musician who entertained the guests with his zither playing (zither: a traditional tabletop string instrument plucked with the fingers) at a traditional Vienna wine garden (Heuriger). The filmmakers heard him and decided to use his music for the film. The Third Man is still fairly big in Vienna tourism. You can take a tour of the sewers where the film was shot, it is called Third Man Tour. (The sewers are actually quite clean and do not smell bad at all!) There is also an English language movie theater called Burg Kino (fairly close to the Opera House) where they show The Third Man in English every evening.

Totally agree with the metaphor for Harry's disillusionment in his friend Harry with American naivete in the aftermath of the war and how monsters like Harry take advantage of the situation. Another element of this film is how when society is torn apart--as in after the war--the grifter comes out in people who might not otherwise go to such lengths to survive (Anna). Anna's moral compass has become so screwed up that she stays loyal to Harry Lime, who has made no effort to protect her when he goes undercover, and rejects Holly Martens, who as part of his deal to give up Harry Lime has protected her from the police. She has fallen prey to Harry Lime's charm (he got her false papers, but not very good ones, to get favors from her while it was convenient), yet Harry Lime considers her--and everyone else--like those ant-like figures viewed from the top of the Ferris wheel.

My favorite Joseph Cotten role is "Shadow Of A Doubt" by Alfred Hitcock.

If you are interest in seeing more Noir films I recommend have you seen "Double Indemnity", "The Maltese Falcon", "The Big Sleep", "Murder My Sweet"or "Laura"? I ask since I love those films and recommend them if you haven't. Its a really interesting genre and you rarely see it anymore since it revels in shadows, darker themes and the isolation we feel in the modern era.

Appreciate the pre-viewing research you did here. A lot of postwar noir was very fatalistic as there was a great confusion in the air. The war was over, the axis defeated - yet there was still injustice and immoral acts in the world. The Third Man is probably the greatest distillation of that feeling, and it remains a cinematic masterpiece.

I actually find the ending of The Third Man to be profound and beautiful and not bleak and hopeless. Think about it. These two people have been through their own personal hells. They are traumatized and disillusioned. They are not ok... and that's ok. I mean they literally have Anna putting one foot in front of the other which is sometimes all you can and should ask of yourself after trauma. Martins comes to terms with what happened enough to attend Lime's funeral and to make the attempt to talk to Anna. That's not nothing. When my husband and I watched this film, at the end, a lyric from the musical Next To Normal popped into my head. "When you find you don't have to be happy at all, to be happy your alive." I think The Third Man was probably strangely comforting to a post-war public when so much of the larger culture and societal expectations wanted everyone to just snap out of it and be happy. I actually found it very comforting during the worst of the covid pandemic before the vaccine.

Oh that music will haunt you forever! We are as untethered from truth as we are from morality. Wonderful confusion in a shattered world.❤

What you said @ 11:05 about contrast is so true too when comparing movies made during the war and just after. The feel of them are quite apparent like when comparing wartime "Objective, Burma!" (1945) to "Crossfire" (1947). And the wartime Casablanca you did to The Third Man here! ✌️😎

Great video on The Third Man 1949 masterpiece. Directed by the great English director Carol Reed. I think this film was chosen by the critics as the best English film of all time, I personally as a fan I totally agree I would put it on any list among the best films that have ever been made. It is a very entertaining film that has everything a great mystery plot a great truly unrepeatable soundtrack one of the best directors and a great cast. Great performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, but especially highlighting the impressive performance of Orson Welles despite the fact that he barely appears ten minutes in the film is an unrepeatable performance demonstrating the great class that one of the best actors and directors has of the history of cinema. A film that I have seen countless times and never get tired of watching it again is a great movie classic.

Really loving your channel -- I teach film and I love your enthusiasm. Producer David Selznick made a number of small but detrimental changes to the US cut of the film, but one thing he insisted on and was absolutely right about: he said Joe Cotten couldn't possibly get the girl. She's been in love with Harry and the fact that he's a villain doesn't matter to her, and Selznick said the women in the audience would absolutely hate it if she suddenly turned around and forgave Cotten for killing her man. Good storytelling instinct.

Connecting Holly traveling to Vienna with postwar GI's returning to America is brilliant.

Ohhh, Lawrence of Arabia. I just got that one a few weeks ago and have been meaning to watch it, so now I'll have an extra motivation and will be able to (hopefully) make an intelligent comment! Woohoo!

A great Joseph Cotton lead? "The Magnificent Ambersons", the film Welles felt was better than "Kane" before the studio edits. But it contains one of Cotton's best performances.

I am so glad you have seen what I have seen. The desperate, dangerous world. One of the great lines was made by Ernst Deutsch: " I wish I could, but you know I am an Austrian. I have to be careful with the police." - an Austrian, in Vienna, the capital of Austria, has to be careful. It stabs one in the heart. P.S. Paine, the sergeant who got shot was Bernard Lee, who played M, in the James Bond films, and a constant actor in British film. His character is quintessentially British in this setting,

Worth mentioning that there's two different versions of this movie. - A UK/everywhere but US release and a .... US release. The former has an intro spoken by the director Carol Reed

You have given a brilliant analysis of not only the film but of the times. I’m an 80 year old English woman who was born at the end of WW2 and you have a perfect concept of the times

The period after 1945 was the most optimistic and hopeful in all of human history. The depression had been overcome, and the principles of Keynesian economics and heavy regulation would ensure such depressions couldn't return (at least until Reagan undid the regulation). The second world war ended by total defeat of the Nazis. There was grand promises of social welfare which were being met, the GI bill and the subsidizing of mortgages meant many Americans were financially secure. Film Noir is about the dark parts of the human experience, but it isn't cynical, it is hopeful. The real cynicism only came at the end of the 60s, as people gave up hope on socialism, and turned to drugs.

Before abnormal psychology became part of the reservoir of general knowledge, few individuals outside the field would have been able to recognize a sociopath. Ordinary people like Holly assumed everyone was basically decent, which left them open to manipulators. Nowadays, the chilling stories Holly tells Anna about his school days with Harry, would send a chill down the spine of any astute listener. But Holly accepts Harry's friendship as an unshakable fact, even when his 'friend' nearly murders him on the Ferris wheel. Anna never does get it, despite learning that Harry has made money from destroying the lives of children. Then again, she behaves like a classic enabler. This is my favorite movie of all time: the plot, the characters, the acting, the dialogue, the setting, the cinematography...everything about it is absolutely perfect. And what a chilling glimpse into the human psyche! Absolutely masterful!

I think the jauntiness of the score is there to serve as a constant reminder of the kind of film this very nearly was, one about this author meeting up with an old friend in a beautiful foreign city. But it instead becomes chilling as immoral medical dealings and evident war ramifications run rampant. At one point it seems like it’s doing its job of highlighting a genuine happy moment, the reunion with Lime, but this is so bittersweet on my rewatches. So the music itself morphs into something more melancholy. But I think what makes this film is Welles. Lime is such an amoral bastard, and you feel so dirty for being suckered in by his charm, just like Anna had been, but she never wises up to the fact that she deserves better. Perhaps not Holly, but *anybody* over a penicillin snatcher/child murderer. That's who she goes on to mourn, what a waste. Talk about cynicism.... For your noir month, I'd do a figurative back flip to see Laura (1944). Potentially my favorite noir ever and one of my favorites in general. It's no less dark than most of them but it's one of the classiest and wittiest noirs you could watch. The modern variety you're expressing a want for is neo noir, and this is something like Blade Runner 2049. It's not the same, of course. But, looking forward to LoA! Quite literally as far from Brief Encounter as one can humanly get. Lean knew a thing or two.

When I was growing up, we had a family tradition where every New Year's Day we would all sit down and watch The Third Man on VCR. It's such a brilliant film!

Orson Welles did a Radio Show about Harry Lime. It showed that Harry was a very complex person. He could be charming. He could be generous. But he also could be ruthless and cruel.

Oh boy! I look forward to the big epic next time!

This film is a true classic The Third Man directed by Carol Reed starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard and music by Anton Karas. Great reaction Mia thanks☺

It's SO great to see someone from your generation appreciating enjoying these great b& w movies that kept me as a child / young girl escape from the major family turmoil disfunction!!🍿🍿👍👍

Looking forward to Lawrence of Arabia. One of the best instrumental musical scores ever for the main theme. Not to mention the great acting and camera work, and locations.

I really enjoyed your commentary of a great film. Thanks.

Mia: You favorite Brit in this film, Bernard Lee, was best known for portraying 'M', James Bond's boss, in the first 11 Bond films. He died in 1981.

Mia, another beautiful film set in Vienna (in this case mid-1900s Vienna) is Max Ophüls' "Letter From An Uknown Woman" with JOAN FONTAINE...in one of her most acclaimed roles. It's one of the few Ophüls directed in English and outside of Austria. You'll inevitably come across his films. They're always interesting and aesthetically crafted. Thanks for reacting to the greats, as a cinephile I appreciate your videos!

There's a radio show starring Orson Welles called "The Adventures of Harry Lime". It's how I discovered this movie

This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it's great to see a reaction to it. The performances are all excellent, but I particularly enjoy Trevor Howard and Alida Valli. I watched Brief Encounter because of this movie. I wanted to see Howard in another role, and I enjoyed that one as well.

Joseph Cotten was Welles best man as his wedding to Rita Hayworth.

Other British films you could watch are Night and The City,The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Local Hero, The Red Shoes, and A Matter of Life and Death.

And yes, I'm pretty sure the music is SUPPOSED to be that famously annoying, to suggest the happy contentedness that post-war Europe wanted to settle into immediately, but all the old skeletons hadn't been buried yet...

One of my favorite movie ever.

That was a really in depth analysis and couldn't agree more. The plot is hard to follow at first, but not as tough as The Big Sleep, but both fascinating to watch despite that. And the tilt angle shots you mentioned, there's one @ 20:16 where it looks like Joseph Cotton is leaning to his right and the camera is tilted to match him to make it seem he's standing straight, but the wall behind him appears tilted down to the right. I can imagine the director telling him, "Lean a little further Joe. OK, that's it. No, back a little. Now, hold it right there while we check lighting!" Cotton, 10 minutes later: "I'm getting a cramp, Carol. Can we speed this up a bit." LOL! Barnard Lee is best known playing the regular character "M", James Bond's boss at the start of the Bond films in '62. And you mentioned Film-Noir Month. That's going to fun! And next, "Al Lawrence! AL LAWRENCE !!"... wow, what an epic Mia. That has got to be the most widest of the wide-screen movies there is and when you see the shots you'll see why they wanted it that way. That's going to be a good one... I mean two! ✌️😎

There was a full on black-and-white film-noir in set in the 1940s, with a much more frank take on the hyper-masculine culture of the era: 2006 "The Good German" By Steven Soderbergh. I think it's a good noir, and it is influenced the the 1960s turn which changed noir from morality tales to actual darkness.

It's not recent, but “Body Heat” in the 80s is widely regarded as a fine example of modern noir. (And it is essentially a remake of another classic noir, “Double Indemnity.”)

Great reaction. I absolutely love your channel. I wish more reactors would delve deeper into the early classics.

I love that soundtrack so much.

The atmosphere and music, magnificent. It makes you to watch again. And again.

Noir isn't about 'being a douche' or 'having no feelings', it's about being EVIL. Harry Lime isn't a douche, he's quite personable. You'd probably like him. It's not that he has no sympathy for others, he's simply evil. This is why film noir is optimistic--- it genuinely discusses what is good and what is evil, without cynicism that it isn't possible to tell, because it always is possible.

Bernard Lee, of course, was the original "M" in the James Bond films.

A wonderful and empathetic reaction to one a strong, dark, scary movie. I've been exposed to this movie from the time I was really young and not able to understand it. Like so many great things, the more you watch it, the more you see and the more details come out, adding to your knowledge and your doubt. Graham Greene wrote some very dark, sometimes very funny (if you approach it right) work. Two of my favorites are "Our Man in Havanna", which is a sort of twisted, ironic view of the spy business starring the great Alec Guinness as a quiet vacuum salesman pulled into very odd dealings; and a meditative, pessimistic cinema poem "Monsignor Quixote" also with Guinness backed by Leo McKern. This is a noir, but not a typical one really - for me the big difference is that there is no femme fatale: that character is generally a woman of initiative and force who will lead the protagonist into trouble and into a dangerous affair. Anna is vulnerable; she is resistant to a relationship with Holly; she loves the ghost of Harry, and is blind to the darkness in him because she has received kindness and help at his hands. In a way, if there is a femme fatale in this story, it's Harry. That first reveal, with the cat at his feet, is one of my favorites (and the build up to it is right there when Anna tells Holly that the cat only liked Harry; then we see the kitty looking up at the figure). The fear you rightly say is in Harry's eyes in the famous ferris wheel scene is there in the doorway, when he gives Holly that wonderful smile and then runs away. That scene was the first one I paid attention to at first watching, and the line that stays with me always is: "In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michaelangelo, da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock." I never felt that Calloway was spinning a story for Holly: I always felt he was a very burdened official with lots of responsibility who was now dealing with a difficult wild card in Holly. One of the first things he says to Holly that Harry Lime was a racketeer. We may doubt Calloway, but my doubt always stops dead when we go to the hospital and we see the consequences of Harry's actions. The awful truth about Harry is precisely that he is charismatic and fun, and pulls you in (as he pulled you in), but he will tie you to him, as he did with Anna, who will never be whole, and manipulate you, as he does with Holly, and he does not care about anyone but himself, and he may not even care about himself by this point. This movie is so rich that you can watch it each time from some one else's point of view in addition to Holly: you can walk in Anna's shoes, or Calloway's, and when I walk in Calloway's, I feel awful for the humanity he himself has to sacrifice in order to do his work. He has lost his partner, Sergeant Paine, at the end of this; Paine, who was kind and gentle, and who knew Holly's novels, and whose death is indirectly at the hands of Holly. The instrument used in the score is a zither and the artist is Anton Karas. The zither is a typically-Austrian instrument. Here it is being used by Strauss, in his famous waltz, "Tales from the Vienna woods". The zither comes in at about 2:40: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/f75_YJieyK6llXk.html. I loved your drawing of connection from pre-war Austria in "Sound of Music" to this post-war Vienna. The rubble and the dark corners do make a terrible contrast. If you watch "Judgment at Nuremburg" and "A Foreign Affair", you'll see similar wreckage in Germany. "The Search", a heartwrenching story of a little boy and his mother searching for each other also shows us Europe after the devastation; it's also noteworthy as a very early Montgomery Clift role. Looking forward to the next one!

It helps if one is European to understand this story line more comprehensively, namley , having a fairly good idea in understanding the dialog spoken in German or at least, having a good idea what was said. But, beside that, this movie has at least 5 or more story lines going on at the same time : a story about friendship, love, disilusion, fear of unknown future, post war anxiety, hoplesness, etc...etc....And the music....I've seen that movie when I was 7-8 years old in late fifties, and though i didn't exactly understood what was going on, I remembered the music!! This movie is a pure art !!! Holywood has a lot catching up to do , despite all the technicall wizardry available.

if you like noir, watch one day 'dead men don't wear plaid' with steve martin, a parody-homage to the genre ^.^

I love that you love old films. I’m following.

It is for me the best film ever made🙂

Stupendous, iconic sound track.

Joseph Cotton films - Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt,, which was a very different role for him. Selznick's Since You Went Away which is World War II as seen by a family at home while the husband/father is away. Great cast - Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Hattie McDaniel, Shirley Temple, Agnes Moorehead, Robert Walker. Also Song of Bernadette with Jennifer Jones. Another great job!

Greene wrote the book and screenplay together but the movie came out before the book. The book is great also. The zither soundtrack became a number 1 album right after it came out.

If you want to see Cotten later in life, he appeared in a Rockford Files episode "This Case is Closed." 1974.

It was so gratifying to see you pick up on the camera angles. It's such an effective and yet subtle way of giving the audience the feeling that everything is just a little off, and how it hints that no one you see is entirely what they seem at first glance. For me, the German dialogue places me in Holly's shoes as a fish out of water, and I suspect that was the intent: to make the audience feel what he is going through as an outsider and how that uncertainty of what people are saying leads to uncertainty about their intentions.

This is pretty much one of the quintessential film noir films. Film Noir is to me mostly exaggerations with scenes using high key lighting, or low key lighting. Key lighting is used today, but harder to see in color unlike black and white silver nitrate film. Did quick research for films of this year and review the color films to this one. Important to note is that films that the studios were unsure about there profitability, they filmed in cheaper black and white and not color. It is important to note that the rubble of post war Vienna is there to see in black and white. The end result of what the war did to the city. There is not a lot of footage of what post war German occupied areas that were the focus of allied air campaign look like. With this film you see the result. This is one of the things that I think make this film special

What a great movie. What I never absorbed before was the look of actual war-torn Vienna as the setting. It also has one of the best, if not THE best, character reveal in cinematic history.

In response to your comments about the returning veterans being let down, that's actually the primary plot point of 'The Roaring Twenties', with James Cagney, which is the last of the great cycle of gangster films from the '30s. It's recommended, if you're interested in that sort of stuff.

apparently the music was pure chance. In a wine cellar bar near the film location Carol Reed, Cotton, the Italian Woman star, and Orson went for a drink after filming a sequence and they heard this guy playing for tips. Anton Karas was a 40 year old Zither player.....can u believe it?

If you like British movies, you love these: - The Inn of the Sixth Happiness! - North-West Frontiers - Lady Vanished - I’ll know where l’m going

Great reaction! Roger Ebert once called this the film that most captured the romance of cinema and he was completely right (he also described the theme tune as "jaunty but cheerless, like whistling in the dark" which I also love.) Harry Lime has maybe the greatest introduction of any character in film history. I do find it interesting you see Anna's attitude at the end as being one of disillusionment. I always saw it as her fierce commitment to Harry, even knowing all his flaws (“A person doesn't change just because you find out more.”) Also since you liked this I'd recommend 'Our Man in Havana' (1959), also written by Graham Greene and starring Alec Guinness and Maureen O'Hara as the most Irish accented English character you'll ever see in a movie (I'm allowed to say that, I'm Irish.)

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a series about British pop culture and how it reflects British society, Alan Moore supposes that Harry Lime was working for the British government all along, that he actually survived the end of this movie, and that he returned to the UK and actually became M from the James Bond films, tying Lime's criminality to to government corruption and subterfuge. Funnily enough, M's actor, Bernard Lee, is also in The Third Man as the genial police officer whom Lime kills in the climax.

It Happened One Night could be a good film to watch for Oscars month. It was the first film to win all 4 main Oscars.

Mia thank you ,it really is a pleasure to hear your enthusiasm expressed so articulately you make excelent points ,I'm a 70 year old Brit and have seen 3rd man many times over the years but you pointed out things I had missed , I am working my way through your reviews , film noir, might I suggest BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH aka OUT OF THE PAST ,it's my favourite of the genre, Robert Mitchum ,Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas , or maybe a British favourite like Ken Loach's KES it's not noir but a great film and the story was familiar to me as I grew up in a similar place .

“During meetings between Graham Greene and Carol Reed with David O. Selznick, Greene was less than impressed with Selznick, who had (according to Selznick's own son) "become something of a parody of himself". Greene later mocked Selznick's dependency, at that stage, on the drug Dexedrine, better known as "speed". Coincidentally, Reed also became hooked on Dexedrine whilst shooting the time-consuming film. Both Reed and Selznick were operating on as little as 2 hours of sleep a day.”

Yeah, it’s all about that zither music, ain’t it? 🎶 I didn’t even know what a zither was before I saw this film but it sure lends a unique signature sound to these grim postwar events. I love when musical scores contrast unexpectedly with its stories and, yeah, Wes Anderson comes to mind. I think you’re also right about him drawing other stylistic influences from older films, like those tilted angles. Those shots (sometimes referred to as Dutch or Chinese angles) also pop up in other different types of genre films like ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,’ ‘Friday,’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth.’ Spike Lee even used them to powerful effect in ‘Do the Right Thing.’ You hit the nail right on the head when it comes to film noirs: those films are usually dark commentaries meant to convey disillusionment, disenchantment, cynicism, and utter futility - just a total lack of hope and faith in the “system,” whether it be government, religion, marriage, family, and even life itself. In fact, the really “dark” ones spit in the faces of all of those institutions. And you’re so accurate about those films being a result of post war fatigue and uncertainty. Those were extremely unstable times, as you pointed out, and the existential angst is even reflected in the disaffected way the characters speak. People felt very disconnected from everything, a symptom of postwar survival. It was really fun watching you try to get a handle on Orson Welles’ Harry Lime character. I’ve had a personal fascination with that character from the moment I saw his mischievous grinning face light up for the very first time in that alleyway. The bottom line is he’s a sociopath. And that amazing speech in the Ferris wheel outlines his whole philosophy. But damn it if he isn’t so suave, debonair, and charming. Which is precisely what makes him so seductive and dangerous. It’s like the gods above were playing a drinking game one night and decided “Hey, let’s give somebody the charisma of both a golden retriever AND a cobra.” And Orson Welles just plays the shizzle schnizzle out of it. That Ferris wheel speech is such a sweet smelling potion, you could almost fall for it hook, line, and sinker. He’s just too smooth. You’re killin’ it, Mia. You’re on a roll. Because you’re so attuned to the social, cultural, and historical underpinnings of the classic films you’re reacting to, I can’t wait to see you feast on the seven course meal that is David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ When people say “they don’t make ‘em like they used to,” they’re literally referring to this epic. It’s one of the most ambitious films ever made. And David Lean sticks the landing. Cheers! 😊

Where is the ending? The long shot of Anna walking by Holly with absolute disdain says everything about Holly Martins as a man. Anna told him earlier that 'you've got your precious honesty, you don't want anything else'. ' Else' meaning fun. Holly Martins was smitten with Anna but she was indifferent to his school-boy crush. Not a happy ending but an honest one. Great film!

Orson Welles met Churchill a few times and has some very funny stories of their meeting. I remember ration books and lack of food in England and the same drive to survive was throughout Europe only perhaps more desperate that does not excuse crime but we are today so very dependent on others for the basics in life such as food and energy for our homes. Take away the utilities and humans will change.

“Carol Reed went to great lengths to capture the atmosphere of the beleaguered city on film, and he was helped along by city officials and ordinary inhabitants. On nights when rain was unavailable to give the cobblestone streets the appropriate glistening sheen, for example, the city would provide a fire brigade to wet things down. Reed also incorporated many local residents into the film as extras such as the often glimpsed balloon seller.”

The scene on the big wheel was written by Orson Welles.

The main difference in the novela is that Holly gets the girl. But the movie's ending is better. According to the intro to the novela, the idea for the movie came first. Graham Greene wrote an extensive, descriptive treatment before the script then polished the treatment into a novela to be published.

“Paul Hörbiger couldn't speak a word of English and had to learn his lines phonetically.”

The 20th Century wasn't afraid of moral ambiguity, especially in the wake of WWII, when the depravity of the human animal was revealed to have an average face. So they didn't bother with too much backstory in the bad guys' story to humanize them because often everything you needed to know about them was in their actions. For Harry Lime, his facial expressions are just as poignant as actual actions he took, so it's all right there.

A great modern film noir is The Man Who Wasn't There. It was written and directed by the Coen Brothers.

“Orson Welles said that when he agreed to play Harry Lime, he was offered either a straight salary or a percentage of the profits. Welles chose the salary, but he later regretted it because the film went on to become such a huge hit, the percentage was ultimately worth far more than the salary.”

If you are looking for film noir, then Double Indemnity must be on your list.

great review!

“Orson Welles worked one week on this film”

Really good analysis and reaction, Mia!

The best latter day noirs that you might enjoy are Body Heat, Chinatown, and L.A. Confidential. Also, the popularity of this film spawned a prequel radio series about Harry Line's various cons and related ne'er do well adventures.

The style with the canted (Dutch) camera angles is called German expressionism.