THE THIRD MAN: The DARK TRUTH - WFP Reviews

[TalkernateHistory]

That scene where Harry first gets revealed is pure cinema magic.

[tangonf]

Hi, great review of this film, I think you said it all, I have watched this many times and I never get bored, the quality of acting and the direction was just perfect and the darkness of post war Vienna moving. It would never have worked so well in colour.

[russellgilfix]

Descriptions of this film often reference film noire or the spy genre. Though true and tangible I think the deepest part of what makes this story and this film so compelling is left unarticulated. Ask yourself, what is it about the central character Harry Lime that is so compelling? And what is it about this story that is so compelling? There is the personal charm of Harry Lime. There is the question of just what happened to Harry which is replaced by just what will happen to Harry. But what grips us in the story and about Harry Lime is reflected in the city and its inhabitence living in the dark shadows of a nightmare. Sections of the city are ruins that while only a few years dead could just as well be medieval. The city is balkanized, divided by the 4 ruling jurisdictions. Harry Lime made his life on the killing of innocent people, even women and children. On their blood if you will. He was a monster. And then he died. And then he was not dead. He was the undead ... as in his ghoulish appearance in the edges of darkness, amongst the ruins while they wait for him at the cafe. He is a sort of 20th Century Dracula, existing in his Transalvanian landscape of the dead and those living in fear. His charm is old world charm which clokes what lies beneath. He hides from the Van Helsings of the world by returning to the ruins and the soil of that part of the city which is his graveyard, his crypt. Except for the one notable scene his time is night time. And in that one daytime scene to our eyes the world appears completely deserted outside of Wells and Cotton. Yes there is the chilling reference to people as those tiny specks. There is the invisible hand at the control of the ferris wheel implying there is someone but we never see them. There is the charm and humor of Lime's famous lines framing the justification for terror and murder. That the words that reveal his true vampire's heart are said in daylight add a chillingness to their clarity. In the end his hunting down and death encores the death of Dracula. It is a final frenzy with its tensions and shadows and finality. As with the image, the lighting, the cinematography of Lime appearing as a sort of ghoul in the scene mentioned earlier, the deeply memorable and troubling shot of his dying, his fingers reaching up through the grate of a manhole cover as if straining to reach out from the grave into the night's wind, the final death of this monster, this vampire.

With its heart of darkness, its darkness at the edge of life and death in a nightmare world, and the final shot of the long yet lifeless walk past Harry Lime's final resting place(and past the shell of Joseph Cotton) we have a story which blends the real world of post WWII Europe, film noire, the spy genre, but at its heart it is a horror movie the more haunting because it doesnt rely on superstition to provide a monster. A charming man and what was actually left of a real, charmed city provides all that is needed.

[VladWFPReviews]

Hi. I hope you enjoyed this video. I recall being in Vienna and finding the exact address of the doorway where Harry Lime first appears. I excitedly told a resident - and he didn't know what I was talking about.

[kevinjones]

Visit Vienna in midwinter and take the Third Man tour at dusk to all the city centre locations including the Karlplatz 'sewer' (actually a buried river) and the doorway where Harry first appears. Not much has changed since the film was shot. A visit to the Centeal Cemetry, a short ride away is well worth it to see the paths disappearing to infinity.The grave is near the Soviet graves.

[StephenPohlmann]

Better late than never. Good review of a great film. Although not credited, this was my father's first film - Eric Pohlmann. Talk to Gerhard and Karin, who lovingly conceived and constructed the Third Man Museum in Vienna, said to be the ONLY museum based on a single film - in the World. It features everything about the film, everything about war-torn Vienna, occupied, and also tells the stories of the Jews of Vienna.

[tomcramer]

Thanks Walt excellent review, did not know Graham Green wrote it and that the director was able to control ending.i wanted to point out that
A few Hitchcock Hermann film music collaborations my be on this level as well.its always fun when you connect the dots with other directors and stars, Great work!

[timpedder]

Another excellent review, Walt. Thanks for posting.

[cliffboyd]

Great film. So much satisfaction for me here is in the aesthetic qualities: the composition of shots, the angles, the lines, the shadows, the backgrounds of Vienna. The darks blacks and shadows are so rich. It’s great that b+w cinematography was at a place where it could deliver deep black tones this way - washed out grey would just not be as appealing - stating the obvious of course.

Terrific review. Well thought out and nicely delivered. It’s clear your admiration and enjoyment of these classics. Good choice on requests here from one of your viewers as well ;)

Also good work with sound and editing and technical elements here! Good job all around! 👍

[normanmeharry]

The profundity of this story has a deeper level of the motif of the imperfect/ flawed messiah figure who seems to have cheated death and commands unconditional love/devotion. This was a theme that interested Grahame in his writing through his career. I think Anna's love for Harry is so right & true. I have often come across 'Annas' in this life, attached in her way to civil monsters.

[gregkubicek]

Another great review by Walt and WFP. I can't wait to watch the film again with the additional insights the review provided--and maybe a Bond movie or two also.

[francoisevassy]

Actually Orson Welles has a very short role, that reminds me a fact I heard about actor Pierre Fresnay ; in Marcel Pagnol’s trilogy (Marius, Fanny, César), Fresnay has a very short role in César (1936) and a friend of his was asking him why he had accepted to play such a small role, Fresnay’s answer was a great lesson for the actors : « It’s true that I only appear a few minutes, but everyone has been talking about me since the beginning ! ».
Same condition for Orson Welles…
Salute from France 🇫🇷

[thorgodofthunder]

Mark - You've done it again! Another Tour de Force Review of one of the best spy movies ever made. IMO Only the British can really make a good spy movie. Probably because they're so close to the action, metaphorically and literally. The Director was right in his opinion of the Americans at the time. The Moles at British Intelligence became Moles because of their hatred of all things American. I think this feeling was intensified when the Yanks forced the Brits out of Sinai back in 56.
I'm a softie when it comes to those Cinema Noir Spy Movies with the long dark shadows and not knowing who the good guys or bad guys are until near the end. Please keep up the great work as I eagerly look forward to your posts. Cheerio Old Bean!😀

[graemewilson]

John glen prolific Bond director throughout the 1980s also worked on the third man, and why the Ferris wheel referenced in The living daylights (1987)

[paultaylor]

Enjoyed the video but need to argue a point regarding the allegation of Greenes anti-Americanism in this story.
It is suggested that Holly (Cotton) represents a kind of naive blundering American attitude to these complicated European situations whereas Calloway (Howard) portrays a more nuanced, worldly-wise British attitude.
However, in the novella Martins and Lime are English. I presume that their nationality changed for the movie with the prospect of American backing and distribution.
Certainly in The Quiet American Greene does highlight the initial naivety of the American approach in post war Indochina but I am not sure that that was a theme for GG with The Third Man
Anyway, thanks and i will watch more of your content

[neobrutalist]

Nice reviews. Will you be doing any of the following?
Where Eagles Dare
The Dirty Dozen
Kelly's Heroes
Looking forward to more. Thanks.

[greenman]

The most well known homage to the ending shots of the Third Man is Robert Altman's wonderful The Long Goodbye. Altman did not use the plot that Raymond Chandler wrote, and it makes the ending especially different from the novel. But the ending of Altman's Long Goodbye, Altman stated was due to his love of the Third Man.

I was sad that the great Trevor Howard didn't get a mention. He was in other films of Greene stories.
Another famous story is that though from the story by Graham Greene, a man with a mighty ego, the lines that everyone remembers most....were put in by Wells. That probably annoyed Greene or amused him. It could go either way.
BTW his anti Americanism was fully justified. The US had overthrown a democratically elected government in Iran, and installed the Fascist Shah. Overthrown a democratically elected government in Zaire, and installed the Dictator Mobuto. Overthrown the democratically elected government in Indonesia and installed the corrupt Dictator family of the Suhartos. Helped to overthrown the democratically elected governments of : Chile, Peru, Argentina, Venezuala, Guatemal, Hondoura, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. And that there there was the 10 year wholly illegal bombing of Laos, the horror of Vietnam, supporting to genocidal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Oh, and Marco in the Philippines..
Ah, and Greece..yes, the US installed a Fascist Dictatorship in Greece too.
Most Americans don't seem to understand why the US was so hated by the mid 70s.
Everyone hated the US. Everyone. And then putting Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq and giving him chemical weapons which he used to kill his own people...yeah, the US has a lot to answer for. The US is the reason Iraq went to war with Iran. We paid Hussein to do it, we gave him the weapons.
The behaviour of the US after WW2 is not taught in US schools, the same way the Japanese don't teach about their behaviour in WW2. But, in both cases, the rest of the world does get taught about it. And they don't like it, or us, because of it.

[castelodeossos]

Considering how brief this presentation is, one can only say it is well done. Would, however, be interesting to know exactly what RWhistler said that is remniscent of Harry's observation.
Must take issue with GGreene's supposed 'anti-Americanism'. If there's ever an American character who isn't admirable in every way, Americans cry out 'anti-Americanism'. That kind of language belongs in Stalinist Russia, where anything other than praises for Stalin and his regime led to the Gulag and is, of course, meaningless. I always liked the character played by Joseph Cotton and now I'm being told he's an instance of anti-Americanism, for crying out loud.
'The Quiet American' is a love story against the backdrop of American foreign policy in South-East Asia. Because that policy was naïve and hypocritical, does that mean one is not allowed to describe it as such? And if the novel is anti-American, surely it follows that it is must be also anti-French, since they too are shown in an unfavourable light. And how about anti-Vietnamese too, because of Phuong's fickleness, just to make the nonsense complete.

[captainadams]

Enjoying your videos.
Another film you might care to look at is the World War 2 action drama set in the desert 'Sea of Sand.'
The film stars Richard Attenborough. There is also 'We Dive at Dawn.' Starring John Mills.

[jaewokG]

i love this movie. however, i've never seen a joseph cotton performance in _any_ movie that didn't suggest to me that he got the part for being tall more than his acting ability.