Matt Connarton Unleashed: Erich Pilcher reviews The Third Man (1949).

Man, the third Man, hated by a thousand men, desired by one

woman. The third Man. Hanging is too good for him. Nothing is

too good for the third Man. Her man was the third Man, the

man on every woman's lips. Vienna, nineteen fifty. A city fearful of

its present, uncertain of its future. Vionna, the once gay capital of

a lighthearted people, here in the shadows of its palaces and ruins, is

told with tenderness, drama, and suspense, the story of the Third Man.

There was a third man there, and I suppose that doesn't sound peculiar

to me. I'm not interested in whether a racketeer like lyme was killed by

his friends or by an accident. The only important thing is that he's dead.

Third Man, the story of two men and one woman caught in the

dangerous web of an international love affair. Oh, please, for heaven's sake,

stop making him in your image. Harry was real. He wasn't just

your friend and my lover. No, I don't know. I'm just a

hack writer who drinks too much and falls in love with girls. You me,

you told me such a fool, of course, The Third Man Joseph

Cotton, in his most successful performance as an American caught in a whirlpool of

cotton evel intrigue. The Glamorous Valley is the mysterious Viennese actress who you the

secret of The Third Man. Bit Roles are one aspect of cinema we have

yet to speak about on this program, even though they are a major part

of cinema history. They are short moments when someone is in a film or

seen in a film. They can be when at the time a novis performer

is getting their first role, or done as a cameo to generate gravitas towards

a character or pivotal moment in a particular film. This week's film has,

in my opinion, the greatest bit role in cinema history, and that is

due to the power and complexity in the performance from this month's focus or sin

Welles released in Britain in nineteen forty nine in Stateside in nineteen fifty Directed by

Carol Reid and based off a treatment from writer Graham Green, The Third Man

tells the tale of down and out writer Holly Martin's played by screen legend Joseph

Cotton, a man that travels to post war Vienna to take on a job

from his friend Harry Lyme played by Wells, whom upon his arrival Martins finds

out has been murdered. However, while investigating his death, Martin finds that

things are not what they seem. Our next clip will introduce us to Martin's

Shortly after his arrival, he is drinking in a local pub when he is

confronted by major Callaway. As the film is placed in the film noir genre,

this interaction conveys many aspects of this amazing genre. In one of my

personal favorites, the drunken, down and out lead in the authority figure thought

to be villainous in the beginning, but as the film goes on, we

find out they are not. Also noticed the short and terse dialogue between the

two that is quite present in this scene. I guess nobody knew Harry like

he did, like I did, how long ago, back in school.

It's never was so lonesome in my life till he showed up and you see

him nast September thirty nine, when the business started. She madn't for there

once in a while, best friend I ever had. That sounds like a

cheap novel, att Well I write cheap novel at I'm afraid I never heard

of it. What's your name again? Holly Martin's sorry you ever hear of

the loan writer of Santa Fe Caja that I have death of double x ranch

of raunch. Nope, must have known how it's broke. He even sent

me an airplane ticket. He's a shame. But him dying like that the

best thing that ever happened to him. What are you trying to say?

It was about the worst racketeer that ever made a dirty living in the city.

Policeman, huh, come on, have another drink. Oh, I

never did like policemen. I have to call him sherriff. Haven seen one

pending on a dead man, some petty racket with gasoline or something, just

like a cop, your real cop. I suppose it wasn't petrol, So

it wasn't petrol, so it was tires or sacrain. Why don't you catch

a few murderers for a change. Well, you could say that murder was

part of his racket. It's all right, pen He's only a scribbler with

too much drink in him. Take mister Holly Martin's term Holly Marty's the uh,

the writer, the author of the death at Doubling's Run. That wasn't

Callahan callaway. I'm English, not Irish. If you're not going to close

your files at a dead man's expense, so you're going to find me the

real criminal. Sounds like one of your stories. When I'm finished with you,

you'll leave Vianna. You look so silly. Here's some army money should

see you through tonight that Soccers will tell if you don't drink too much in

the bar, we'll keep a seat for you on tomorrow's plane. Please be

kiflesit written anything lately. Take him to Socers. Don't hit him again if

he behaves. When talking about the film, the performance by Cotton is one

of his best, and that is saying a lot. However, Wells is

hairy Lime is the main attraction in this film. Wells was only on the

screen for ten minutes. However, in those ten minutes, Wells deliver an

amazing performance. The film in the writing with this great story builds up the

appearance of this wartime profiteer. But if not for Wells, it wouldn't matter.

In this film would not have the legendary status it has today. Our

next clip is one of the most well known from this film, Lime explains

to Martin's why his selling diluted penicillin that has led to the death in paralysis

of many, including children, is acceptable. This scene also shows what made

Well an outstanding performer. His range and depth is on full display as we

hear his callousness, charm, wit, knowledge, and greed victims the melodramatic

I'll tell, man, would you really I feel any pity if one of

those dots stop moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every

dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep

my money? Or would you calculate how many dots you could accord to spare

free of income tax I only free of income taxes. Oh the way you

can save money out there? What a good your money'll do you in jail,

got jails in another zone. There's no proof against me, besides you,

I should be pretty easy to get rid of, pretty easy. Wouldn't

be too sure I carry a gun. I don't think they'd look for a

bullet, won't after you hit that ground, dug up your carpet, confound

hobing pity? Holly, what fools we are talking to each other this way,

as though I do anything to you or you to me. You're just

a little mixed up about things. In general. Nobody thinks in terms of

human beings. Governments don't. Why should we. They talk about the people

and the proletariat. I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the

same thing. They have their five year plans. So have I used to

believe in God. I still don't believe in God. I don't believe in

God and mercy and all that. But dead are happier dead. They don't

miss much here, poor devils. What do you believe in? Or if

you ever get Anna out of this mess, be kind to her? Can

find she's worth it. I was trying to ask she'd bring me some of

these tablets from home, Holly, I'd like to cut you in home.

Man, nobody left him. Then I can really trust, and we've always

done everything together. When you make up your mind, send me a message.

I meet you any place, anytime. And when we do meet,

though, man, it's you I want to see, not the police.

Remember that, won't you don't be so gloomy after I got that awful What

the fella said Natalie for thirty years under the Borges. They had warfare,

terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelolian out of Da Vinci and

the Renaissance in Switzerland. They had brotherly loved. They had five hundred years

of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

It's a long holly. This film was very important to the career of wor

Sin Welles, as it introduced him to the film noir genre. This genre

would allow him to use his love of lighting techniques in dialogue to drive a

film. You could say that film noir was set up perfectly for Wells's strengths.

As famed director and Wells's biographer Peter Bogdanovich explains in our final clip,

Wells would go on to direct two more harolded noir films, The Stranger and

The Lady from Shanghai, and I'll take a moment here to argue that his

film The Trial would be classified as neo noir, a subgenre of film noir.

This clip will also tell us Wells's love for black and white as a

medium. I think The Third Man is probably one of the best, if

not the greatest, non o tour films ever made, where you have this

extraordinary coming together of a bunch of really first rate talents, all working at

their top. Graham Green as a writer, Alex Corda as a producer,

Carol Reed as a director, Vienna looking very photogenic right after the war,

Trevor Howard at his best, Orson Wells certainly at his most mysterious in a

role that you know he was born to play, and Joe Cotton really very

American and eloquent, and Alita Valley, you know, at her most ingrid

Bergmanny Carol Reid is one of those underrated directors who was highly thought of during

his lifetime, but since he's passed away and nobody much talks about him,

probably because the last few films he made were not among his best, even

though they were his most successful. So Oliver, which won Oscars and so

on, isn't exactly a film buffs Delight, But films like The Third Man

or Odd Man Out, or The Fallen Idol or even Outcast of the Islands

or even The Stars Looked Down. All those films thirty years ago were considered

to be classics of the classics of the English cinema. And you see them

again they hold up awfully well. One of the wonderful things about the Third

Man also is this extraordinary black and white photography that you can feel the wetness

in the stones of Vienna. You know. Orson used to refer to black

and white as the actor's friend, and I said, why do you say,

They said, well, he says, you know, every performance is

better in black and white. Name me a great performance in color. I

defy you, And you know, it is hard to think of great performances

in color. There is something about black and white. It's the lack of

distraction. You don't sit there saying aren't those blue eyes beautiful? Or isn't

that hair color nice? It focuses on the dramatic. I once said to

Orson, welles, my god, that role of Harry Lyme is you're so

great in that picture? And he said, well, he said, that's

the part. It's the greatest star part ever written. Well, you know

what a star part is, he says, That's what they talk about you

for an hour and then you appear. He says, I did it on

the stage one called mister Woo. Everybody for the first forty five minutes of

the play says, you know, but what will happen when mister Wu gets

here? And yes, but what will mister Wu say about this? And

wait till we find out what mister Wu thinks and all that, and he

says, and everybody boils around the stage, as Orson said, for about

almost an hour talking about mister Woo. And then just at the end of

the first act, way in the distance on the stage, crossing a bridge,

comes the small figure of mister Wu, and everybody goes, ah,

mister Wo. And the curtain comes down and the audience comes out and says,

isn't that actor playing mister Wu? Great Orsen said, that's a star

part for you. He always said that he had no influence over the production,

except that he wrote that speech about the cuckoo clock, which is the

one speech everybody remembers from the picture. But when I asked him whether he'd

influenced Carol Reid, he said Carol Reid was a hell of a director and

didn't need my opinion. However, I think it's important to note that the

look of the third Man, and in fact the whole film would be unthinkable

without Citizen Kane, the Stranger and the Lady from Shanghai, which Orson made

in the forties, and all of Wi, all of which preceded The Third

Man. Carol Reid I think was definitely influenced by Orson well as the director

from the films he had made. Whether or not there was any conscious conversation

about shooting s things a certain way or not, I'm that probably wasn't the

case, cause Carol Reid was awfully good. He was a you know,

good craftsman and knew what he was doing. The picture's very daring, very

fast cutting, probably the greatest of the foreign film noirs. You know.

It's just one of those extraordinarily happy accidents, which isn't to be patronizing because

Casablancas that can be called that too. Kind of an extraordinarily happy accident,

But when you see The Third Man, it doesn't seem accidental. Everybody,

I think knew what they were doing and it's a great film. The Third

Man was highly regarded upon release. It was the highest grossing film in Britain

in nineteen forty nine. It won the British Academy of Films Best Picture.

It took home the Palm Dior from Cans in America, It was nominated for

three Academy Awards, including Best Director. It won for Best Cinematography. This

film has become a staple of the film noir genre and most importantly, is

an example of the beautiful, over the top performer that Wells was. I

hope you join me next week, when our month long tribute towards and Wells

concludes with what is often looked at as his final masterpiece, the nineteen seventy

five film f for Fake for wmna H and Matt Connerton Unleashed. This has

been a classic film review with Eric Pilcher, but then the Many, But

at the day many begin believe been the what