THE THIRD MAN: The DARK TRUTH - WFP Reviews
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2022
- THE THIRD MAN: An appreciation of the 1949 classic & the focus of its human story. Starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard & Valli. Directed by Carol Reed. Story by Graham Greene. This video is dedicated to channel supporters Betsy & Greg.
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That scene where Harry first gets revealed is pure cinema magic.
yes, and all Orson had to do was stand there and smile
Never in the history of cinema, before or since, has the introduction of a character, let alone a protagonist, been made to the audience in such a dramatic, unexpected yet simple and ingenious fashion...Thank you for mentioning it, it's a wonderful scene, of a classic movie, some would say the best British film in history, and they, would get no argument from me!... Cinematography, direction, script, acting, and that musical score, all of them unforgettable, and the most unexpected yet wonderfully made ending to a unique movie, one never wants to end!...
@@alexanderkarayannis6425 Best film ever made
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.
Thanks again! Yes, black and white works on so many levels. Orson knew a thing or two about making movies, so I thought his view that b-w can enhance a performance was very interesting.
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.
Neither will anyone else under sixty years old.
@@stephenwalters9891 Exactly.
Perhaps Mr Popescu could have a word with the resident!
I wanted my 13 year old nephew and godson to see The Third Man (he had already studied German for three years and English for one year), and when I warned him it would be black and white, he told his mother : « My godmother is taking me to see a corny movie ».
So we went to the cinema and when we came out, he told me : « This is the best movie I ever saw and if you want to do me a favour, please give me the VHS tape for my next birthday ! »…
I always try to show good old classics to my nephews and nieces, so when I turned 50, I gave a party and every nephew had prepared a sketch for me, one of my nieces said : « Thanks to you, when I hear people speak of an actor named Grant, I know it’s not only Hugh, but also Cary ! » 🙂.
@@francoisevassy6614 As someone who started my video channel to promote worthwhile classics to new viewers your wonderful story gives me some hope that all the work is worth it.
My favourite film
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.
Definitely on my bucket list. TTM is my favorite movie.
In my one visit to Vienna I actually tracked down the plaza where Harry first appears - and was excited to tell a local resident about this. He didn't have a clue what i was talking about! Thanks for your comment.
I was filming many many years ago in Vienna and called my friend Midge Ure.. He said it meant nothing to him.
@@mollyfilms after that you would have been dancing, with tears in your eyes
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!
Thanks, Tom. I know what a serious movie fan you are, so your support means a lot. I agree about the Hitchcock-Hermann combo - their "divorce" in the 1960s certainly didn't improve Hitch's final films.
Another excellent review, Walt. Thanks for posting.
And thanks for watching and your comment.
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)
Wow, did not know about Glen. Obviously he must have been a very young man making 3rd Man. Thanks for posting!
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 🇫🇷
Merci.
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! 👍
You are totally correct about the greatness of the b-w cinematography - how good it looks and how it heightens the drama. Of course it was mandatory for noir but later films such as Hud or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf were better for it. Of course today's audiences would never accept it. Thanks for watching and your support!
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.
Thanks so much. I trust you noted the dedication in the introductory text under the video. As i have noted before, the support and encouragement of you two was a key factor in moving this channel forward.
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.
Nice reviews. Will you be doing any of the following?
Where Eagles Dare
The Dirty Dozen
Kelly's Heroes
Looking forward to more. Thanks.
Thanks so much. Well, my focus is on British or British-themed productions so Dirty Dozen or Kelly's Heroes are too American but Where Eagles Dare would certainly qualify. Btw I do touch on Eagles in my review of Guns of Navarone, looking at writer Alistair MacLean's "template".
Where Eagles Dare is a cracking film.
Story is that neither Clint Eastwood or Richard Burton were that interested at first.
Clint Eastwood was told that Richard Burton had said that he wanted to do an action film with Clint Eastwood. Richard Burton was told that Clint Eastwood wanted to work with a serious actor such as Richard Burton. It worked. "Broadsword calling Danny Boy."
Just a classic film.
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
Thank you and fair points. I have read the novella but forgot about the characters nationality in the story. Of course, Greene also wrote the screenplay and I felt it couldn't be a coincidence that Martins is made to be a writer of dime-store westerns. Also, Greene had his roles with British intelligence and it was well known that many in the British spy service felt fairly snooty about their American cousins, at least until the truth about Philby and the Cambridge spies started coming out.
@@Vlad65WFPReviews in the novella Martens was also a writer of lowbrow Westerns.
Calloway asked "Have you ever been to America ?"
"No."
Must have been some awful books if he could only describe the settings after watching black and white Hollywood movies !!
The novella mentions that Rollo Martens has affairs with women in Dublin and Amsterdam but doesn't explain how such a man as himself came to be in these places.
In the same way Holly Martens background in the film was a bit sketchy because I am not sure that we get a good idea of exactly why he went to Vienna. Just the vague offer from Lime. Not so much of a jaunt from England (the book) but rather more so from the US.
However, I still love the film and find the post war period in Europe and elsewhere almost as interesting as the war itself
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!😀
Thanks, Thor. Some of those British moles also turned traitors out of some kind of perverse self-loathing. I strongly recommend the book A Spy Among Friends, a best-seller which looks at Kim Philby and that whole period. It's really a fantastic read. Again, thanks for your support.
Spy movie ?
@@paultaylor7059 Ok, it is a borderline "spy movie" as we know Harry was somehow doing work for the Muscovites which is why they let him stay safely in their sector. I think the writer was referring to the setting and "feel" of the movie - but your point is valid.
@@Vlad65WFPReviews seems like I am always arguing but I can't help it.
The Third Man is definitely not a spy movie. In any way.
It is a film that uses the backdrop of a terrible crime - although the crime is only spoken of, we don't actually see it - and uses that in a very dramatic setting to examine issues of loyalty and accountability for ones actions, among other things.
Call it a crime movie, maybe, but not a spy movie.
I have read the McLean book recently - this year, I think. Something of a turning point for the class system in Britain, I think but I am not sure that you can call McLeans treachery a form of self-loathing.
The Great War was still fresh in the consciousness of McLean and his contemporaries and the new way of forming a society in the Soviet Union must have seemed the way forward for humanity. Little did he/they know then that their idealism was horribly misplaced.
His disgusting betrayal of his fellow countrymen and their allies which led to countless deaths should have led to him being quietly executed.
Unlike Harry Lime, he didn't really get what was coming to him.
Anyway, thanks for the dialogue.
@@paultaylor7059 I hear you - I was just respecting Thor's take based on whatever Harry was doing for the Russians (betraying people who had the wrong papers is kinda spying). But of course it is really more noir in terms of look, period and story. Enjoy your comments!
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.
Thanks! I will look into those titles. At some point I also want to do another John Mills classic, Tunes of Glory, co-starring some guy who thought he could act named Alec Guinness (as I am sure you know).
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.
I watched The Long Goodbye again within the last year and liked it a fair bit - but the unvarnished ending when Marlowe takes his action upped the movie even further for me. (What an amazing final shot as he walks up the road past the woman who doesn't know what happened!) Of course we both know that "darker" endings stay with you much more effectively than the usual happy pablum. And also, Altman clearly understood that in everything from McCabe & Mrs Miller to The Player.
@@Vlad65WFPReviews I only was able to see McCabe and Mrs Miller for the first time this past year. Blimey. It is stunning. Though not easy to watch. The sense of impending disaster is so harrowing.
I saw the Long Goodbye when I was 9, well before I was able to catch up with a good copy of The Third Man. I thought I might be just making up the similarity of the concluding shot. But found a comment from Altman saying it was deliberate.
Both Altman and Reed decided to go for a darker, and more striking ending.
I hope that Chandler would agree with Greene's eventual opinion.
Paul Thomas Anderson said that Altman's Long Goodbye was a big influence on his Inherent Vice - which I loved. It is such a fun film. A joy to watch
I enjoy your selections...have you ever seen Kind Hearts and Coronets?
Also..you said you saw a film at the Haymarket, I think it was ...do you live in London?
@@greenman6141 Actually I live where McCabe was filmed many years ago - Vancouver. My first of two trips to London was back in 1981 - of course I liked it better then. But as you can see I like promoting classic Brit productions for those who have missed them (it all started with the great Ice Cold in Alex being almost totally unknown here).
Yes, I love Kind Hearts (The Lavender Hill Mob and the Ealings was one of my earliest efforts - now they are hopefully slicker). Btw, a key nuance of McCabe's title is the "&" instead of "and" - underlining the pair were in a business partnership to run their "house".
@@Vlad65WFPReviews Ah, lucky you..Vancouver always seems grand.
I'm stuck in the land of Trump, and it isn't amusing me. Even though I'm in a sane state. So I indulge in watching films from home. Though home is in a sorry state now too. Probably why I like older films.
REally enjoy your videos.
@@greenman6141 Well, like so many "desirable" cities, life in Vancouver is going seriously downhill as things get too crowded and too expensive. The city has gotten so congested now that we don't access great areas like Stanley Park. (But I am grateful for good earlier decades!) We also have many "Yanks" in the family so we follow the news down there. But as you say, when you look at the world today (and I have family in Ukraine too) the old movies and series offer a great way to escape for a while. (We're currently rewatching the divine Rumpole of the Bailey)
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.
Hi. Thanks for your comment. First, I'm not American or British. I have done reading about the attitudes of British elites and Intelligence personnel concerning the US and there was clear resentment and jealousy as America's power rose during and after WW II while Britain lost its empire. You can often see that in John Le Carre and in non-fiction as well. Acrimony between senior commanders in the British and US armies is well documented (especially after the failure of Operation Market Garden).
Perhaps what I didn't underline is that Greene could also skewer British targets as well as he did in Our Man in Havana.
Of course Cotton's character has likeable traits and he is persistent in investigating Harry's death. However, researching this video I did find several articles on Greene's views on the US. I found it notable that the author chose to make his hero a writer of pulp Westerns and, ultimately, a well-intentioned amateur.
Finally, I would hope that my reviews are balanced enough - offering evidence to support my views - that they would not be compared to Stalinism. I have family members who escaped from Stalin after WW II - I know the man's crimes very well - and I do not welcome the comparison.
You should do the Quiller Memorandum which is probably one of the best spy film ever made. ua-cam.com/video/CrlfWnsS7ac/v-deo.html