The Post War Cuckoo Clock Society - Carol Reed's 'The Third Man'

Synopsis

Orson Welles stars as Harry Lime, and Joseph Cotten plays his childhood friend, Holly Martins, in this all-time classic thriller scripted by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed. Martins searches for Lime through the seedy underworld of postwar Vienna and gets caught up in a web of love, deception, racketeering, and murder. The Third Man’s stunning cinematography, twisting plot, and unforgettable zither score are immortalized in Criterion’s pristine special edition, following the 50th Anniversary theatrical re-release.

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=64

1949                Director: Carol Reed                Black & White

I find it hard to forgive the Literature and History teachers I had in high school for not covering the two world wars properly.  I watched this masterpiece several times, and even read the script aloud with others in the early 1990’s… and wasn’t impressed. Now that I know more about the subject (a topic beyond the scope of this article) I was able to better recognize the superbly fashioned post-war atmosphere of this motion picture.  Towards the tales end, I lost myself in the moral ambiguities and melancholic, drab atmosphere; the suffocating realm of Harry Lime's theater of operations. The unusual noir technical aspects, the great caricatures, and the eclectic accents just get overlooked as the powerful vehicle of the story carries you to the end of the film. Themes discussed are the Reconstruction era by the Allied nations in Post-War Europe, and the deconstruction of friendships and alliances in the face of crisis.  This film gets the Kierkegaardian stamp of approval.

Popular Quote:

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

Comments

[The Dave]

I try hard not to review many current films - too many people have already taken up that hobby - and I find its better to talk about something that most of my readers may have not discovered - that's the primary point of this Blog... simple pleasures and forgotten treasures. Anyway, if you like film noir, go check out the new flick 'The Good German' - with elements of 'The Lady from Shanghai,' 'The Big Sleep,' 'Casablanca,' and of course - 'The Third Man.' The film itself is decent - the attempt of making a film like they used to (if you can disregard a little bit more vulgarity, violence, and sexuality) is excellent.