5/10/19 The Third Man

I always think of this movie as a flash of genius. Each of the makers of the film never reached this Zenith again.

The story and screenplay was written by the celebrated author Graham Greene. None of his other adaptions were as successful.

The film starred Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles who appeared in Citizen Kane eight years earlier. Cotten's outstanding performance as Uncle Charlie was five years earlier. Welles would also be involved in a one more great film called "Touch of Evil"(maybe coming soon) in 1958. I believe that Welles recognized this movie as unique classic and always seemed to play up his role in making it, including writing some of the dialog.

As a general rule, the look of the film is most influenced by the director. In this case, it was directed by Carol Reed. Looking at his body of work, it stands out as unlike anything else he has done. His much praised "Odd Man Out" is a predictable story about a man who has been shot and cannot find any help from any of his "friends". It was shot in a very pedestrian way and the dialog was unmemorable. "The Fallen Idol" which was also based on a Graham Greene screen play, was modest stagey film where a boy keeps doing stupid actions which implicit someone else as a murderer. It is an experiment in frustration. The viewer keeps hoping the boy will stop.

The most interesting comparison is Carol Reed's "Night Train to Munich" filmed nine years earlier. It is also set in Europe with a "fish out of water" character. It also has the two British characters from Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and it is a thriller involving spies. What is not to like. The resulting film is bland due to the dull photography and dialog. This is compounded by fake Hollywood movie feel by the lack of any foreign language in the film. The characters who "speak" german indicate this by talking english with a silly german accent. This is a far cry from "The Third Man" which had non-english through the whole movie.