Film ReviewsThe Third Man: the timelessness of the cuckoo clock
July 2, 2015 Anchorage Press
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The landscape of the film world is littered with productions of all sorts, thousands of them over time, but once in a while a film comes along that becomes a landmark of cinematic history, The Third Man is just that. Directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene, this 1949 noir drama starred Orson Welles as the infamous Harry Lime, a war-time opportunist whose ventures not only cost the lives of his indirect victims but also undermined love and friendship.
When Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American pulp Western writer, arrives in Vienna to meet his childhood friend, Harry Lime, after WWII, Martins discovers Lime was killed just days earlier by a speeding car while crossing the street. At the funeral Martins meets Lime's girlfriend, Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), as well as a couple of sleuths who are hot of on the trail of the presumably dead Harry Lime. Set in British-occupied post-war Vienna, Trevor Howard plays Major Calloway, the officer in charge of the investigation into Lime's death. As Martins tries to make heads and tails of what and who Lime really was and what really happened to him, Martin falls in love with Schmidt and allows Calloway to guide him through the course of events. However, Martins' bond to his childhood friend is strong and he seeks him out by piecing together the happenings of the day Lime was killed. The devil is in the details, and although the account of the accident was straightforward, there was one element that did not make clear sense-basically, were there two men who carried Lime's body off the street, or was there a third man? That is the crucial element on which the plot pivots. What follows is a whirling carnival ride in which viewers see rapidly passing clues as they engage in a race against time along with Holly Martins.
The Third Man is brilliantly executed, from the casting to the music to the tense espionage and delivery of Lime's brilliant, though possibly erroneous, assessment of humanity. The origin of Lime's speech is unclear, but it was penned and delivered by Welles himself. "Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love-they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Carol Reed, a master of suspense, builds up the idea of Harry Lime until it gets to a point where the viewers can't take it anymore, so Reed gives Lime to them in one fell swoop in the penumbra of cobblestone streets with angular and drastic lighting. From that point forward, Martins' path to finding Harry is also a path away from him.
The Third Man is presented in a 4K restoration done by Rialto Pictures from the original 35 mm print. This restoration is beyond the standard 2K digital restoration process; 4K scans contain about eight million bits of screen information and allows for the manipulation of picture elements at a level far superior to its general exhibition format. The newly restored The Third Man is a treat.
In honor of Orson Welles' one-hundredth birthday, The Third Man shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, July 6 at 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.
When Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American pulp Western writer, arrives in Vienna to meet his childhood friend, Harry Lime, after WWII, Martins discovers Lime was killed just days earlier by a speeding car while crossing the street. At the funeral Martins meets Lime's girlfriend, Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), as well as a couple of sleuths who are hot of on the trail of the presumably dead Harry Lime. Set in British-occupied post-war Vienna, Trevor Howard plays Major Calloway, the officer in charge of the investigation into Lime's death. As Martins tries to make heads and tails of what and who Lime really was and what really happened to him, Martin falls in love with Schmidt and allows Calloway to guide him through the course of events. However, Martins' bond to his childhood friend is strong and he seeks him out by piecing together the happenings of the day Lime was killed. The devil is in the details, and although the account of the accident was straightforward, there was one element that did not make clear sense-basically, were there two men who carried Lime's body off the street, or was there a third man? That is the crucial element on which the plot pivots. What follows is a whirling carnival ride in which viewers see rapidly passing clues as they engage in a race against time along with Holly Martins.
The Third Man is brilliantly executed, from the casting to the music to the tense espionage and delivery of Lime's brilliant, though possibly erroneous, assessment of humanity. The origin of Lime's speech is unclear, but it was penned and delivered by Welles himself. "Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love-they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Carol Reed, a master of suspense, builds up the idea of Harry Lime until it gets to a point where the viewers can't take it anymore, so Reed gives Lime to them in one fell swoop in the penumbra of cobblestone streets with angular and drastic lighting. From that point forward, Martins' path to finding Harry is also a path away from him.
The Third Man is presented in a 4K restoration done by Rialto Pictures from the original 35 mm print. This restoration is beyond the standard 2K digital restoration process; 4K scans contain about eight million bits of screen information and allows for the manipulation of picture elements at a level far superior to its general exhibition format. The newly restored The Third Man is a treat.
In honor of Orson Welles' one-hundredth birthday, The Third Man shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, July 6 at 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.