The Third Man

The great British noir The Third Man returns to the big screen 75 years later in a crisp 4K remaster by StudioCanal. Set at the cusp of the Cold War, this black-and-white thriller finds novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arriving in Vienna only to find his best friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) unexpectedly dead. Charmed with Harry’s partner Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli) and on the radar of local authorities, Holly takes it upon himself to investigate Harry’s death.

A noir masterpiece that still reigns supreme. For decades, The Third Man has been regarded as one of the greatest British films and greatest thrillers of all time. While its mystery might seem relatively straightforward for modern audiences, Carol Reed’s taut direction and Graham Greene’s darkly funny screenplay still make The Third Man an exceptional exercise in tension-building. Reed’s voiceover sets the stage for the post-War world we’re setting into. With the Cold War still in its earliest stage of political paranoia, Vienna is divided among the Americans, the Brits, and the Soviets. Navigating this divided world is Joseph Cotten’s Holly, a writer of pulpy Westerns who also encounters eccentric characters almost pulled out of his own pages. Even before the plot takes shape, Greene’s screenplay offers some memorable and satirically funny situations centered around Holly. Even bit interactions with the suspicious townsfolk and an unexpected fan of his writing will keep you intrigued.

Orson Welles chews the scenery despite limited screen time. Past the midpoint of The Third Man, the real nail-biting begins — Orson Welles’ enigmatically charming Harry Lime (quite literally) walks out of the shadows. While Welles’ magnum opus Citizen Kane often gets slandered as “overrated” among contemporary cinephiles, his supporting act in The Third Man proves how his egotistical star power made him the perfect fit for roguish characters like these. Capturing the same megalomania as the titular figures of Citizen Kane and The Stranger (a relatively underrated noir starring Welles), the stalwart has a delightfully wicked screen presence. His morals might not be that grey, and in some scenes, he’s rather one-dimensional. However, Welles’ theatrical voice modulation and piercing gaze offer an interesting contrast to Joseph Cotten’s mellowed-down performance.

Every frame is a soothing painting, while the many Dutch angles capture the tension. The strongest point of The Third Man, particularly this remaster, is the visual brilliance of it all. Exploring the abandoned corners, pubs, streets, and (most importantly) sewers of Vienna, Robert Krasker’s cinematography paints a haunting yet beautiful portrait of the city. The light-and-shadow play shifts between smooth and gritty, as per the tone that the scene demands. But with many a frame, the modern-day viewer will have the innate urge to pull out their smartphone to grab a shot of almost every frame because every frame is quite literally a painting. However, the eyebrow-raising aspect of The Third Man’s visual style is the Dutch angle. The tilted camera angle is often relied upon in scenes of psychological tension or intense action. Still, in The Third Man, the camera is tilted even when not much is happening. Initially, it might come off as a recurring gimmick, but as the tension heightens, the Dutch angles make the audience uneasy without any explicit dialogue. A nearly Hitchcockian sense of dread sets in whenever Krasker’s camera shifts perspective, signaling the calm before the storm.