Movie Review: The Third Man

[andyfox]

We've touched on this movie here before, but I just saw it again on a DVD. A simply beuatiful and wonderful movie.

Made in 1949 in glorious black and white, it's perhaps the definitive film noir. Directed by Carol Reed, it features fantastic zither music, odd camera angles and shadows, a great performance by Joseph Cotton, and an electrifying performance by Orson Welles, though he's on screen very little. The shot where Welles is first scene, the famous ferris wheel scene, and the final two scenes, make the movie unforgettable, one of the triumphs of movie history. One poll listed it as the greatest English movie of the 20th century.

Highly recommended. I rented it from Blockbuster, so I assume it's readily available.

[Ray Zee]

it is a great movie but how could you possibly know the music was played on some kind of zither. dont give me that you minored in music crap. you still couldnt tell. so you must have seen it explained on the dvd.

orsen welles was always great. not so much as him being a good actor but just by being himself, he was dazzling.

[Chris Alger]

For the life of me I thought you said this was overrated, or that you didn't like it or something. Maybe I misunderstood.

I've always liked it. The persistence of rats in sewers. In the ferris wheel scene, Welles might have speculated a bit about who the "ants" liked during the war.

[ArchAngel71857]

I'm looking forward to see this movie. Its third on my netflix after i return manchurian candidate and Dr. Zhivago.

(I am watching the AFI "best" 100 films of all time that I haven't seen. that means a lot , and i mean A LOT, of musicals.)

-AA

[Zeno]

What's the word on the remake of Manchurain Canidate?

Anyone know?

I saw an ad where it will hit the theaters at the end of July.

-Zeno

[Zeno]

Was it a fretless Zither or the other kind?

Fretless Zithers (http://home.earthlink.net/~minermusic/fretless_zithers.htm)

It's always more complicated than it seems. Does Orson Welles PLAY a Zither in the movie? Now that would be one interesting scene.

-Zeno

[natedogg]

Since there's pretty much only one song in the whole movie, you can fairly safely assume that the "zither playing" listed in the credits is the theme song. That's how I learned it was a zither at least.

natedogg

[andyfox]

natedogg is correct. The zitherist was Anton Karas. There are two pictures of him playing for the film in the BFI Film Classics book by Rob White, and another in In Search of the Third Man by Charles Drazin.

[andyfox]

"Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving for ever? If I offered you 20,000 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 afford to spend--free of income tax, old man, free of income tax."

"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed--but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

[sfer]

I've heard that Graham Greene wrote the treatment, screenplay, and novella in that order. He's certainly one the reasons why the movie is so great.

[John Cole]

Unfortunately, you won't be able to see some of the best musicals on DVD. Swingtime, Top Hat, and Shall We Dance, as far as I know, aren't available.

[Cyrus]

In the DVD I own, there is a featurette about Karas. He speaks to the camera and is filmed playing background for some early 60s fancy restaurant goers.

This is one of my most favorite films of all time. Definitely desert island material.

[John Cole]

Criterion has done a great job with the restoration. I saw it broadcast the other night on the local PBS station, and it's almost unwatchable.

I've always loved the scene in which Holly is "abducted" and whisked away to the literary guild meeting and then asked to speak on "the stream of consciousness."

BTW, two other great silent classics, The Passion of Joan of Arc and City Lights, have been beautifully treated on DVD. City Lights includes some fine commentary (although the film begs for a Chaplin scholar) and some great "home movies." Watch the way Chaplin adopts Winston Churchill's gestures and walk when they meet.

[smudgex68]

[ QUOTE ]
two other great silent classics

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like silent classics you must see L'Atlante by Jean Vigo. One of the best pictures ever made.

[ArchAngel71857]

What's the word on the remake of Manchurain Canidate?

It comes out sometime soon, July/Aug sometime.

[dsm]

[ QUOTE ]
Was it a fretless Zither?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was fretted, and it also had a whammy bar.

[ QUOTE ]
Does Orson Welles PLAY a Zither in the movie?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, it's played by Anton Karas. Here's a 29-second sample of the song from the movie, it's titled, "The Harry Lime Theme." Anybody who has seen 'The Third Man' will remember the last six seconds from this sample.


The Harry Lime Theme ( Windows Media Player ) (http://mfile.akamai.com/3171/wm2/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/793/484793_1_02.asx?obj=v30624&urlid=d84342e5ae02d3e93 3a0)

The Harry Lime Theme ( RealPlayer ) (http://mfile.akamai.com/3171/rm/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/usrm/793/484793_1_02.ram?obj=v30624&urlid=d84342e5ae02d3e93 3a0)

-dsm

[John Cole]

I agree. It's a lovely movie. I also think all of Tati's movies--although not strictly silent films but not really talkies either--are among the best ever made.