THE THIRD MAN
UK, 1949, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, Orson Welles, Alida Valli, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde- Whyte.
Directed by Carol Reed.
The Third Man has become a cinema classic, shown by specialist film groups, repeated on television and used for film study. Viewing it will quickly show why.
Carol Reed captures the atmosphere of post-war Vienna and its sinister rackets and military administration vividly. Graham Greene's screenplay is an excursion into "Greeneland", realistic and pessimistic, with mordantly witty dialogue, especially about failure and death. The zither music, the profiles, the angle shots are all worth a close look. The actors also contribute a great deal, from Joseph Cotton's callow hero forced to make a decision to Alida Valli’s Bergman-style sorrow, Trevor Howard's British Briton and Wilfrid Hyde-Whyte's perpetual performance giving effective comic relief.
Orson Welles, of course, has made Harry Lime a memorable figure in only a few appearances He has the famous line about the cuckoo clocks and it is his hand clutching at the grating.
The Third Man is worth study and discussion on the levels of both technique and theme and repays the time given to watching it again.
1. Even though thio film is quite old now, why does it still make such an impact?
2. How is the post-war? Vienna setting quickly established? How well is it used?
3. How effective is the black and white photography used - light, shade, darkness? Why are angle shots used at times? Close ups of faces and profiles?
4. What does the zither and music contribute to the film?
5. What picture of the by-product of war, black market dealings, did the film give? Why do rackets begin and grow? What kind of men become involved in them? Bow horrible was the penicillin racket?
6. What kind of a man was Holly Martens? Was the audience able to identify him easily? Why did he press on with his investigations about Harry Lime?
7. Calloway seemed a hard man. Was it necessary for his job in Vienna? Why? How did Payne, his assistant, balance the picture of the stern English?
8. How did the film build up a picture of Anna - at the funeral, her walking away, her acting in the theatre (so different from her personality), her loneliness, love of Harry (the letters), her forged passport, her horror at Harry's racket, yet her love and loyalty to him, her final walk?
9. How did the film present its villains - the baron, his smile, dog, violin; Papesco, Dr Winkle (Vinkle) carving the meat?
10. How well did the film build up a picture of Harry Lime and his character before he was seen? Orson Wellee had little time to communicate a rounded character, yet he did: how? - Harry's smile, his concern about indigestion, attitude to Holly, indifference to Anna, his threats. Note lines of dialogue -e.g. looking down on dots rather than people from the ferris wheel (and dots are not the equivalent of money); no one thinking in terms of persons, but people, proletariat, suckers and mugs; war and the Italian Renaissance producing Leonardo, Michelangelo etc, , whereas for the Swiss, six centuries of brotherly love produced the cuckoo clock.
11. Did Martens do right in betraying Harry Lime? Why? Why did this disgust Anna? Was she right?
12. How effective was the final chase - the shadow approach of the man, the balloons, the sewer ohase, Harry's shooting Payne, Harry's fingers through the grate in the street, Holly's shooting him?
13. Why did the film end with the funeral and Anna's walk?
14. How did the film create suspicion, tension, excitement - even in sequences in broad daylight - e.g. the porter, the child watching the argument with his ball and his pointing out Harry to the crowd, the taxi ride to the lecture, the lecture fiasco, Papesco's questions, the parrot, Harry Lime's face, the ferris wheel?
15. Graham Greene is always expert at black, sardonic comment. What parts of the screenplay impressed you? Note the porter's pointing to Heaven and Hell, the use made of Holly's being a writer, death being at the bottom of everything, Harry Lime's sayings.
16. A common theme in literature is that of American innocents abroad in Europe being bettered by old European experience. Did the film fit this kind of theme? How?
