‘The Third Man’ and the Specter of World War II
I found Carol Reed’s 1949 film The Third Man to be a film that bends and molds what I thought films that fall under the style of film noir could be. While visually, you could immediately see the influences of noir chosen by Reed: the darkened city, the dirty rise of crime, and so on, there was much that The Third Man took to its advantage by changing to create a more pertinent and cutting story.
For starters, the protagonist of the story is vastly different from the hard boiled detectives who get their hands dirty to solve crimes. That is not the case in this film. Holly Martins is a novelist who writes westerns, and he is visiting the city of Vienna to attend the funeral of his supposedly deceased friend, Harry Lime. Rollins is a character who simply thinks that it has fallen upon him to solve Lime’s murder, to become one of the Western heroes that he so often writes about. Holly is no down-and-dirty cop with a vengeance. He is just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and is in over his head. He works with the police, sure, but the man but he is only there out of his own sense of curiosity, not in the pursuit of justice.
Oddly enough, the music threw me for a loop while watching the movie. The score recorded on a zither by Anton Karas is quite the polar opposite of what is expected for a film noir. Its plucky and charming tune reminded me of the music of Spongebob Squarepants above anything else. It is a distinct choice in style that is fitting with the European setting of the film, but throws one off guard. Also, while speaking stylistically, the photography by Robert Krasker is nothing short of remarkable. The harsh lines and tough smoke of a more traditional film noir is not too present in The Third Man, but Krasker looks to other sources for his menacing visuals. The wreckage of WWII creates mountains of rubble that blend in with the buildings, the lack of street lights is accommodated by very little sources from the windows of people’s homes, and a sewer never looked so labyrinthian in its vast tunnels, roaring waters, and spiraling stairs. While the characters are always on the move in Carol Reed’s film, Krasker always adds a sinister tone to every corner of the city. We never feel welcome in the city of Vienna.
As for the other characters of the film, the supporting cast of The Third Man fall more stereotypically into the film noir style. Orson Welles’s performance as Harry Lime dances around those of his fellow actors. The twists and turns that leave us just as confused as Holly build up the reveal of Lime for the entire film, and he most certainly enters with the glamour of a star. He’s dead, he’s not dead. He’s a good friend, he’s running a penicillin racketeer that is killing citizens. Lime is a criminal mastermind, and Welles plays him with a deadly intelligence and pride. Harry Lime is smarter and better than those chasing him, and he knows it. The only thing that leads to his undoing is Holly Martins’s morbid curiosity about Lime’s supposed “death”. Alida Valli brings an interesting take on the femme fatale trope of noir, and I found her role as an active partner in Martins’s investigation to be akin to a surrogate character for the audience. She is just as curious about Lime’s fate as we. Her side plot of having forged passports also brings in another factor of Reed’s take of film noir: the location.
On the other hand, the setting of the film is one that fully embraces the ideals of noir. When using style that focuses on the disillusionment felt by the people after World War II, Europe is usually not the place you expect a noir to take place, but in reality it makes complete and perfect sense. In the setting of Vienna, far away from the dungy streets of America, a different kind of corruption is met by a different kind of crime. The western and eastern militaries rival over territory, ignoring the bombed out homes and businesses whose bricks litter the streets. Their primary initiative is to increase their power, not to protect the citizens of the occupied territories, so, obviously, resources are scarce. Criminals like Lime and his cohorts are not selling drugs or stealing fine pieces of art like in other film noirs, but they are stealing and selling medicine. The people of Vienna have to buy from them, for there is no other alternative. Vienna is a blackened landscape of cobblestone streets, scorched brick, and secret passageways. The shadow of World War II is ever looming on the minds of those in The Third Man.
