The Third Man (1949)

My Review

“The Third Man” is a film noir drama telling the story of an American writer traveling to post-World War II Vienna to visit a friend who has offered him a job, only to find out that he has died. Director Carol Reed (“Odd Man Out” 1947) employed odd camera angles and shadowy scenes, with a confusing plot which had characters appearing and disappearing. The result is a motion picture that is not easy to watch or to follow. Reed co-wrote the terrible screenplay with Graham Greene, Alexander Korda, and Orson Welles.

The actors’ performances were adequate enough. Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles play the primary characters, with co-stars Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee, Wilfred Hyde-White, and Robert Brown and Geoffrey Keen as British MPs. “The Third Man” was a box office hit for producer David O. Selznick, London Films, and British Lion Film Corporation. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one for Best Cinematography/Black-and-White (Robert Krasker). Non-winners include director and film editing. It was filmed primarily in Vienna, Austria.