Man, the third Man, hated by a thousand men, desired by one
woman. The third Man. Hanging is too good for him. Nothing is
too good for the third Man. Her man was the third Man, the
man on every woman's lips. Vienna, nineteen fifty. A city fearful of
its present, uncertain of its future. Vionna, the once gay capital of
a lighthearted people, here in the shadows of its palaces and ruins, is
told with tenderness, drama, and suspense, the story of the Third Man.
There was a third man there, and I suppose that doesn't sound peculiar
to me. I'm not interested in whether a racketeer like lyme was killed by
his friends or by an accident. The only important thing is that he's dead.
Third Man, the story of two men and one woman caught in the
dangerous web of an international love affair. Oh, please, for heaven's sake,
stop making him in your image. Harry was real. He wasn't just
your friend and my lover. No, I don't know. I'm just a
hack writer who drinks too much and falls in love with girls. You me,
you told me such a fool, of course, The Third Man Joseph
Cotton, in his most successful performance as an American caught in a whirlpool of
cotton evel intrigue. The Glamorous Valley is the mysterious Viennese actress who you the
secret of The Third Man. Bit Roles are one aspect of cinema we have
yet to speak about on this program, even though they are a major part
of cinema history. They are short moments when someone is in a film or
seen in a film. They can be when at the time a novis performer
is getting their first role, or done as a cameo to generate gravitas towards
a character or pivotal moment in a particular film. This week's film has,
in my opinion, the greatest bit role in cinema history, and that is
due to the power and complexity in the performance from this month's focus or sin
Welles released in Britain in nineteen forty nine in Stateside in nineteen fifty Directed by
Carol Reid and based off a treatment from writer Graham Green, The Third Man
tells the tale of down and out writer Holly Martin's played by screen legend Joseph
Cotton, a man that travels to post war Vienna to take on a job
from his friend Harry Lyme played by Wells, whom upon his arrival Martins finds
out has been murdered. However, while investigating his death, Martin finds that
things are not what they seem. Our next clip will introduce us to Martin's
Shortly after his arrival, he is drinking in a local pub when he is
confronted by major Callaway. As the film is placed in the film noir genre,
this interaction conveys many aspects of this amazing genre. In one of my
personal favorites, the drunken, down and out lead in the authority figure thought
to be villainous in the beginning, but as the film goes on, we
find out they are not. Also noticed the short and terse dialogue between the
two that is quite present in this scene. I guess nobody knew Harry like
he did, like I did, how long ago, back in school.
It's never was so lonesome in my life till he showed up and you see
him nast September thirty nine, when the business started. She madn't for there
once in a while, best friend I ever had. That sounds like a
cheap novel, att Well I write cheap novel at I'm afraid I never heard
of it. What's your name again? Holly Martin's sorry you ever hear of
the loan writer of Santa Fe Caja that I have death of double x ranch
of raunch. Nope, must have known how it's broke. He even sent
me an airplane ticket. He's a shame. But him dying like that the
best thing that ever happened to him. What are you trying to say?
It was about the worst racketeer that ever made a dirty living in the city.
Policeman, huh, come on, have another drink. Oh, I
never did like policemen. I have to call him sherriff. Haven seen one
pending on a dead man, some petty racket with gasoline or something, just
like a cop, your real cop. I suppose it wasn't petrol, So
it wasn't petrol, so it was tires or sacrain. Why don't you catch
a few murderers for a change. Well, you could say that murder was
part of his racket. It's all right, pen He's only a scribbler with
too much drink in him. Take mister Holly Martin's term Holly Marty's the uh,
the writer, the author of the death at Doubling's Run. That wasn't
Callahan callaway. I'm English, not Irish. If you're not going to close
your files at a dead man's expense, so you're going to find me the
real criminal. Sounds like one of your stories. When I'm finished with you,
you'll leave Vianna. You look so silly. Here's some army money should
see you through tonight that Soccers will tell if you don't drink too much in
the bar, we'll keep a seat for you on tomorrow's plane. Please be
kiflesit written anything lately. Take him to Socers. Don't hit him again if
he behaves. When talking about the film, the performance by Cotton is one
of his best, and that is saying a lot. However, Wells is
hairy Lime is the main attraction in this film. Wells was only on the
screen for ten minutes. However, in those ten minutes, Wells deliver an
amazing performance. The film in the writing with this great story builds up the
appearance of this wartime profiteer. But if not for Wells, it wouldn't matter.
In this film would not have the legendary status it has today. Our
next clip is one of the most well known from this film, Lime explains
to Martin's why his selling diluted penicillin that has led to the death in paralysis
of many, including children, is acceptable. This scene also shows what made
Well an outstanding performer. His range and depth is on full display as we
hear his callousness, charm, wit, knowledge, and greed victims the melodramatic
I'll tell, man, would you really I feel any pity if one of
those dots stop moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand 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 accord to spare
free of income tax I only free of income taxes. Oh the way you
can save money out there? What a good your money'll do you in jail,
got jails in another zone. There's no proof against me, besides you,
I should be pretty easy to get rid of, pretty easy. Wouldn't
be too sure I carry a gun. I don't think they'd look for a
bullet, won't after you hit that ground, dug up your carpet, confound
hobing pity? Holly, what fools we are talking to each other this way,
as though I do anything to you or you to me. You're just
a little mixed up about things. In general. Nobody thinks in terms of
human beings. Governments don't. Why should we. They talk about the people
and the proletariat. I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the
same thing. They have their five year plans. So have I used to
believe in God. I still don't believe in God. I don't believe in
God and mercy and all that. But dead are happier dead. They don't
miss much here, poor devils. What do you believe in? Or if
you ever get Anna out of this mess, be kind to her? Can
find she's worth it. I was trying to ask she'd bring me some of
these tablets from home, Holly, I'd like to cut you in home.
Man, nobody left him. Then I can really trust, and we've always
done everything together. When you make up your mind, send me a message.
I meet you any place, anytime. And when we do meet,
though, man, it's you I want to see, not the police.
Remember that, won't you don't be so gloomy after I got that awful What
the fella said Natalie for thirty years under the Borges. They had warfare,
terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelolian out of Da Vinci and
the Renaissance in Switzerland. They had brotherly loved. They had five hundred years
of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
It's a long holly. This film was very important to the career of wor
Sin Welles, as it introduced him to the film noir genre. This genre
would allow him to use his love of lighting techniques in dialogue to drive a
film. You could say that film noir was set up perfectly for Wells's strengths.
As famed director and Wells's biographer Peter Bogdanovich explains in our final clip,
Wells would go on to direct two more harolded noir films, The Stranger and
The Lady from Shanghai, and I'll take a moment here to argue that his
film The Trial would be classified as neo noir, a subgenre of film noir.
This clip will also tell us Wells's love for black and white as a
medium. I think The Third Man is probably one of the best, if
not the greatest, non o tour films ever made, where you have this
extraordinary coming together of a bunch of really first rate talents, all working at
their top. Graham Green as a writer, Alex Corda as a producer,
Carol Reed as a director, Vienna looking very photogenic right after the war,
Trevor Howard at his best, Orson Wells certainly at his most mysterious in a
role that you know he was born to play, and Joe Cotton really very
American and eloquent, and Alita Valley, you know, at her most ingrid
Bergmanny Carol Reid is one of those underrated directors who was highly thought of during
his lifetime, but since he's passed away and nobody much talks about him,
probably because the last few films he made were not among his best, even
though they were his most successful. So Oliver, which won Oscars and so
on, isn't exactly a film buffs Delight, But films like The Third Man
or Odd Man Out, or The Fallen Idol or even Outcast of the Islands
or even The Stars Looked Down. All those films thirty years ago were considered
to be classics of the classics of the English cinema. And you see them
again they hold up awfully well. One of the wonderful things about the Third
Man also is this extraordinary black and white photography that you can feel the wetness
in the stones of Vienna. You know. Orson used to refer to black
and white as the actor's friend, and I said, why do you say,
They said, well, he says, you know, every performance is
better in black and white. Name me a great performance in color. I
defy you, And you know, it is hard to think of great performances
in color. There is something about black and white. It's the lack of
distraction. You don't sit there saying aren't those blue eyes beautiful? Or isn't
that hair color nice? It focuses on the dramatic. I once said to
Orson, welles, my god, that role of Harry Lyme is you're so
great in that picture? And he said, well, he said, that's
the part. It's the greatest star part ever written. Well, you know
what a star part is, he says, That's what they talk about you
for an hour and then you appear. He says, I did it on
the stage one called mister Woo. Everybody for the first forty five minutes of
the play says, you know, but what will happen when mister Wu gets
here? And yes, but what will mister Wu say about this? And
wait till we find out what mister Wu thinks and all that, and he
says, and everybody boils around the stage, as Orson said, for about
almost an hour talking about mister Woo. And then just at the end of
the first act, way in the distance on the stage, crossing a bridge,
comes the small figure of mister Wu, and everybody goes, ah,
mister Wo. And the curtain comes down and the audience comes out and says,
isn't that actor playing mister Wu? Great Orsen said, that's a star
part for you. He always said that he had no influence over the production,
except that he wrote that speech about the cuckoo clock, which is the
one speech everybody remembers from the picture. But when I asked him whether he'd
influenced Carol Reid, he said Carol Reid was a hell of a director and
didn't need my opinion. However, I think it's important to note that the
look of the third Man, and in fact the whole film would be unthinkable
without Citizen Kane, the Stranger and the Lady from Shanghai, which Orson made
in the forties, and all of Wi, all of which preceded The Third
Man. Carol Reid I think was definitely influenced by Orson well as the director
from the films he had made. Whether or not there was any conscious conversation
about shooting s things a certain way or not, I'm that probably wasn't the
case, cause Carol Reid was awfully good. He was a you know,
good craftsman and knew what he was doing. The picture's very daring, very
fast cutting, probably the greatest of the foreign film noirs. You know.
It's just one of those extraordinarily happy accidents, which isn't to be patronizing because
Casablancas that can be called that too. Kind of an extraordinarily happy accident,
But when you see The Third Man, it doesn't seem accidental. Everybody,
I think knew what they were doing and it's a great film. The Third
Man was highly regarded upon release. It was the highest grossing film in Britain
in nineteen forty nine. It won the British Academy of Films Best Picture.
It took home the Palm Dior from Cans in America, It was nominated for
three Academy Awards, including Best Director. It won for Best Cinematography. This
film has become a staple of the film noir genre and most importantly, is
an example of the beautiful, over the top performer that Wells was. I
hope you join me next week, when our month long tribute towards and Wells
concludes with what is often looked at as his final masterpiece, the nineteen seventy
five film f for Fake for wmna H and Matt Connerton Unleashed. This has
been a classic film review with Eric Pilcher, but then the Many, But
at the day many begin believe been the what