THE MANY TALENTED MEN OF "THE THIRD MAN": This film noir "has attracted attention for breaking the old maxim of 'too many cooks spoil the broth.'".

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD

"THE THIRD MAN" (1949) takes place in Vienna, Austria, immediately after World War n. It largely was shot on location in the city's bombed out ruins. The German term for such pictures is Trummerfilm or Rubble film. Given the period, it obviously was influenced by the movie movement of the time, "Italian Neorealism."

As with Berlin, Vienna had been divided into four sectors, each controlled by the budding Cold War players: the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The action largely is limited to the British and Soviet areas. The time period, setting, and nefarious activities also are most conducive to components that characterize film noir, a genre birthed, in part, by the war's ugly legacy. How fitting, therefore, to plop a picture down amidst its wreckage of buildings and people.

Other pivotal noir elements include an exisienlialistic philosophy (often with dark comedy overtones), cynical heroes, intricate storylines, which, like life, end without all the answers. Plus, most strikingly, noir showcases a visual style combining German Expressionism's stark nighttime lighting effects and unusual distorted camera angles with disturbing on-location documentaries. At its core, noir embraces Expressionism's fatalism--that is, to become involved, even with the best intentions, only makes matters worse for everyone.

The classic noir normally is built upon what literature calls "tough guy fiction." Pivotal works would start with the writings of Raymond Chandler and his alter ego, detective Philip Marlowe, along with Dashiell Hammett's private eye, Sam Spade. Like German Expressionism, the best of Chandler and Hammett actually predates World War II, with Hammett's central Spade novel, The Maltese Falcon, appearing in 1930, and Marlowe first surfacing in the 1939 novel, The Big Sleep. Chandler likens these detectives to "tarnished knights"--not perfect, but doing the best they can in a dirty world.

However, noir need not have a professional detective. Often, it is an amateur that falls into the task of attempting to solve an ugly mystery. Such is the "The Third Man" scenario, in which an American author of pulp Western novels, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) has come to Vienna with a job offer from an idolized old college friend. However, he has not seen this title figure, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), in some time.

Before further sketching out "The Third Man," its cinematic significance should be underlined. In 1999, the British Film Institute declared it the country's greatest picture. It invariably continues to appear on lists of unparalleled films. Indeed, a 2015 London Guardian article revisiting the film was entitled, "'The Third Man' Review--a Near Perfect Work."

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