"The Third Man" is a flawless film of intrigue and suspense, a summit of perfection within the genre
It is one of the most literate thrillers ever made
It is superb1y acted by an ensemble working in an understated, effortless style
Its cinematography includes some of the best black-and-white work ever done
Its score of haunting zither music is still remembered, instantly familiar to anyone who ever saw the film, and now thorough1y identified with most people's impressions of Vienna
Finally, the direction by Carol Reed is exemplary
Rarely has a motion picture represented the collaboration of so many exceptional talents... "The Third Man" may be the greatest film made in Britain since World War II
The night city terrain of "The Third Man" is unique: occupied postwar Vienna, baroque, bombed-out, decadent, patrolled by Jeeps containing representatives of the four occupying powers, an American, an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian
Corrupt, world-weary people hang about its fringes: the overly suave Rumanian, Popescu; the frayed violinist, Baron Kurtz; the atheistic collector of Catholic antiquities, Dr. Winkel; Crabbit, the tired head of the Anglo Cultural Center; and Anna Schmidt, the Czechoslovakian girl friend of Harry Lime, an obscure actress with forged papers
Moving among them are three extraordinary principals, Holly Martins, a typical Greene creation; a hack American writer; a used- up second-rater; Colonel Calloway, a Scotland Yard type, chief of British Military Police; and Harry Lime (WeIles), the corrupt two-bit racketeer, a fully immoral, totally unreachable villain
These characters wander through rain-slick night streets, in and out of shabby cafés, over the rubble of bombed-out buildings, even into a terrain vague dominated by a huge Ferris wheel
The Vienna of "The Third Man" is a vast city that seems empty
Its streets are always damp, and water rushes through a system of sweet-smelling sewers underneath
It is a world of slinking cats and biting parrots, of people taking advantage of each other without pity
"The Third Man" meets the test of complexity
The characters interact, their stories conflict: A man who is supposed to be dead turns up alive, there is a question of whether two men or a "third man" carried off Lime's "body," there are conspiracies, deceits, and double crosses
Reed owes debts to Fritz Long for some of his ideas: the geometrical shots, the montage of evidence, Welles' whistling, etc., but Reed has his own original visual style, particularly his use of a slightly tilted camera to produce so-called "Chinese angles," employed to project danger, foreboding, a twisted universe
He is also capable of providing suspense in the tradition of Hitchcock
"The Third Man" is unique in the genre for its realism
Despite the complexities of plot, the characters are understandable, dimensional, emotionally genuinea tribute to the fine ensemble playing and special, low-keyed acting style that is the cinematic equivalent of Graham Greene's writing
Carol Reed was knighted for his excellence as a British filmmaker, and for a body of work that is notable for its good taste
It is this taste, of course, that works so well in "The Third Man," but which has destroyed some of his other films, such as "Our Man in Havana," which require a certain amount of excess to make them work