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In Reply to: RE: Let me tell you, some films are real good, but " The Third man " is-- posted by patrickU on May 20, 2008 at 11:13:25
patrickU,
"The Third Man" has long been one of my all-time favourite movies, "Seven Samurai", being another that approaches all-round perfection.
For those who don't know this one, it concerns cowboy Western novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) who arrives in immediate post-war Vienna to write for a charity of his old school chum Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But, Martins learns that Lime was killed when hit by a car, and decides to look into the suspicious death when the eye-witness accounts vary- the caretaker of Lime's apartment building saw three men carry the accident victim to the pavement- intead of the offical two men, hence the titular "third man". While Martins is looking around he's approached by Trevor Howard, who tries to convince Martins that Lime was a dangerous clack-marketeer, whose medicinces have injured and killed children, and in the meantime falls for Lime's somber girlfriend, played by Valli. But, Martins discovers more than he wanted to know and is caught up in a dark intrigue.
A powerful theme of how loyalty to an old friend can blind one's judgement. As you mention, every part was superbly cast, plus war-ravaged Vienna is a fantastic character itself. This movie could never have been as sublimely, depressingly beautiful except in black and white and could never be remade as the cast could never be equalled- Trevor Howard's nonchalant keen-eyed Major, Howard's laconically efficient sargeant Payne, the ghostly Dr. Winkle, "That's 'VEEn-kel', and I can have no opinion, the injury vould have been the same", the ruined Count witht he Cheshire cat smile, the intensely loyal Valli, the sinister Romanian Pepesco, the cheerfully ammoral Welles- all unrepeatable. - This movie has the most beautifully photographed sewer system ever!
Don't wait to see "The Third Man" too long as you may have to reset your lifetime movie watching clock back to "0".
Then, for another treat of intrigue and black comedy, watch another of Carol Reed's masterpieces, "Our Man in Havana" with Alec Guiness, Burl Ives, and Noel Coward in which Guiness, as a Havana vacuum cleaner salesman is caught in Cold War/Cuban Revolution espionage maneuvering.
Cheers,
Bambi B
PS> Patrick, il y a seulement deux jours nous avons parle du "Hobson's Choice". Et voyance delicieuse ! ce film a ete montre la nuit derniere sur TCM. -Avec grand plaisir pour moi !
Follow Ups:
Yes, "The Third Man" should be on anyone's very short list of great films.
Thanks for reminding me about "Our Man in Havana." It has been quite a while since I've seen that film. I fear, however, that events since viewing that film have changed my perspective on it. I thought it was an amusing dark comedy back then. But, since then, the U.S. has gone back into Iraq, base heavily on evidence given by someone who drew pictures of what he claimed was a biological weapons laboratory, a claim which brought this fella a lot of "sponsorship" and money from the U.S. government. As it turned out, the facility he drew looked remarkably like a vacuum cleaner. I would guess that "Our Man" would not play as funny these days. The same thing happened to "Network;" I wonder if "Fight Club" is next.
Warning to those who've never seen "Our Man in Havana"- plot spoilers follow:
Larry I,
The connection you make between the atomic vacuum sketches in "Our Man in Havana" and the contrived WMD evidence in Iraq is brilliant- it nicely demonstrates the way truth is manipulated to support previously derived intentions of the powerful. George Bush Sr. once said, "I'll never apologize for the United States. Ever. I don't care what the facts are," and in "Our Man", Guiness is completely unapologetic for his deceptions to earn the money to give his daughter a pony. He only fears discovery- but is eventually rewarded for his duplicity while the innocent pilot he named had been murdered, his friend (Burl Ives) was murdered, and Guiness murders the agent after him after nearly being poisoned himself. This is indeed as about as dark as humour goes, and all the darker because of the resemblence to current reality- 50 years after.
All the more reason to see "Our Man" and reflect.
Cheers,
Bambi B
Bises d´Allemagne!
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
Mon ami,
Je tombe dans la vieillesse
Le corps a moulé dans le béton irritable
Esprit distrait par pensée de la mort
Regrets de l'unexperienced, le non fini, l'inimaginable
Le paradis tellement mat doit être
Prisonnier d'un film éternel
Rappel de la pluie froide de l'ennui.
Bambi B
ANNABELLE LEE
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Edgar Allan Poe.
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
like "Kanal" are considerably more sinister and 3-dimensional by comparison
Tho' I am impressed by the echoes the "3rd Man" sewers have; especially with gunfire....
The sewers in Fellinis "Roma" are on a far more majestic scale, and contain crypts and ancient artworks...( Just teasin' you Bambi B., all well filmed! )
Grins
grinagog,
First, in defense of "The Third Man" sewer precendence, that was filmed in 1946 while "Kanal" -no matter how sweet smelling it is- was released in 1957.
But, thank you, I always appreciate learning about other good sewer movies. A search for "sewers" on the IMdb yields:
1.William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers (1991)
2.Égouts du paradis, Les (1979) aka "The Sewers of Paradise"
3.The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979) aka "Sewers of Gold" - UK
4.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers (1991) (VG)
5.Children of the Sewers (1999) (TV)
Don't all of these- except the Turtles rubbish- sound intriguing?
There is also the role of the sewer in "The Shawshank Redemption" - Tim Robbins crawls 500 yards through a sewer to escape.
I had never heard of "Kanal", but the IMdb synopses sounds promising.
It's interesting as sewers- like the Viennese in "The Third Man" was used as a metaphor for Harry Lime's (Welles) complete ammorality and degredation- he's trapped like a rat. The shot of Welles' fingers poking through the street grate waving like blades a grass feeling the free air above ground a final time was very sriking. In "Shawshank" the crawl to freedom suggests his "final payment" as part of his redemption.
Now, I'm wondering what will be the promise of "The Sewers of Paradise"?
Cheers,
Bambi B
And yes, Valli is loyal to her now past love, Orson never care for her, but she sublime that and can go beyond, and find a love who sufice to itsel, for a life time long.
That is pure religion.
Au hasard Balthasar come to my mind.
HC is on my shelve waiting for my pleasure....
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
Reading again about 'The Third Man' I think of Welles' character here as being "bookended" in a sense in 'Touch of Evil', as if he survived and wound up as a broken, corrupt cop many years later.
Absolutely the two darkest things Welles did, in my opinion. And both shattering performances.
And if you have never seen it, go to Youtube and seek out Welles doing either (depending on who you ask) 1. A spoof of his Paul Masson commercials, or 2. Just being absolutely hammered on-set and delivering two takes that will have you bent over in pain from laughing.
C.
Touch of Evil , this one is " unclean " I don´t like it, it may be a very good film, and it has many qualities one being a perfect B&W photography, but Wells is too much of Wells and the story is too brutal for my sensible soul.
Now I now the commercials, and even his last interview near Paris.
Rosebud that is my name for his greatest.
Have a good time!
" Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu'une tête bien pleine."
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