The Third Man on TCM

[DanielJones]

Did anyone happen to catch this on Sunday? Baron Kurtz, I would be supprised if you didn't. Loved the way this one was put together, and all you had to set the mood was music from a dulcimer. Thoroughly enjoyed it again.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Andykev]

The Third Man

This is the Orson Wells, Joseph Cotton thriller? I have seen it several times. The music annoys me, and the plot is hard to follow. It was a masterpiece, but strange.

Complete credited cast:
Joseph Cotten .... Holly Martins
Alida Valli .... Anna Schmidt (as Valli)
Orson Welles .... Harry Lime
Trevor Howard .... Major Calloway
Bernard Lee .... Sergeant Paine
Paul H?ɬ?rbiger .... Porter (as Paul Hoerbiger)
Ernst Deutsch .... 'Baron' Kurtz
Siegfried Breuer .... Popescu
Erich Ponto .... Dr. Winkel
Wilfrid Hyde-White .... Crabbin
Hedwig Bleibtreu .... Anna's Old Landlady



Plot Summary for
The Third Man (1949)

An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.

Summary written by Mark Thompson

An American pulp writer arrives in post-WWII Vienna only to find that the friend who waited for him is killed under mysterious circumstances. The ensuing mystery entangles him in his friend's involvement in the black market, with the multinational police, and with his Czech girlfriend.

 

[BellyTank]

...and all you had to set the mood was music from a dulcimer.
Dan

...I thought it was a Zither-

B
T

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Did anyone happen to catch this on Sunday? Baron Kurtz, I would be supprised if you didn't.

No TV! I'd have TV if i could get the three or four channels i actually watch (TCM included). But no, i have to pay for 50 channels of cr*p that i'm not interested in.

Yes, BT, it was Zither.

If you get the chance, read the book. The Welles movie is actually just as good (rare as adaptations go), but that's probably because Graham Greene wrote the book, and converted it for the screenplay.

Tell me i'm not the only one who thinks so: The Baron is pretty sinister in the movie, right?

bk

 

[DanielJones]

Oops, my bad. You are correct BT, it is a Zither. I should know better, my mother used to play one. Thank you for the wake up.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Lena_Horne]

I started watching it but because I had a hard time figuring out what was going on I just went in and finished my potato pancakes and watched something else but I don't remember what... I'm a little ashamed to read that now but I was really lost.

L_H

 

[Quigley Brown]

I just bought the DVD at Borders over the weekend (Criterion is 36 bucks! But while I was there someone gave me a 20% Off coupon). Of course that night on TCM...well, you know.... At least it's in my DVD library.

 

[DanielJones]

Quite a simple plot really. Man fakes death to hide from the international police. Another man doesnt seem to believe that his friend is dead. Add a few endearing characters, a couple of leads and minor bread crumbs along the trail and you have a mystery. So the story goes. I guess it also helps if know a little of the post WWII Europe history. As is the case in any post war country there are the vultures who set up a black market and make an incredible profit on the needs of the suffering. Such is the world I guess.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Quigley Brown]

Tell me i'm not the only one who thinks so: The Baron is pretty sinister in the movie, right?

bk

I think he's pretty cool...it's the dog that's sinister.

 

[DanielJones]

Yes sir, a very sinister pooch at that. Too quiet that one.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[DanielJones]

Also, how many folks recognized Sgt. Payne (Bernard Lee) from his long time stint on the James Bond series as 'M'?

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Also, how many folks recognized Sgt. Payne (Bernard Lee) from his long time stint on the James Bond series as 'M'?

Cheers!

Dan

Not I.

bk

 

[Story]

Alida Valli, 84, Film Actress Memorable in 'Third Man,' Dies
By NADINE BROZAN
New York Times: April 25, 2006

Alida Valli, an Italian movie star who was described by both David O. Selznick and Benito Mussolini as the most beautiful woman in the world after Greta Garbo and who appeared in more than 100 films, died on Saturday at her home in Rome. She was 84.
Skip to next paragraph
British Lion/London Films

Alida Valli in "The Third Man," Carol Reed's 1949 drama.

The office of the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, announced the death to The Associated Press and other news organizations; the cause was not revealed.

If there is one role for which film buffs particularly revere Ms. Valli, it is that of Anna Schmidt, the tragic Czech refugee heroine of Carol Reed's "Third Man" (1949). She was cast in that movie, based on the Graham Greene novel, after being summoned to Hollywood by Selznick. He insisted that she take the name Valli, hoping it would have the same magic as Garbo.

But first he cast her with Gregory Peck in Hitchcock's "Paradine Case" and in "The Miracle of the Bells," with Frank Sinatra.

Ms. Valli's own life could well have inspired a screenplay. She was born in Pula, which is now in Croatia. According to the local-history Web site www.istrianet.org, she was born Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger, baroness of Marckenstein and Freuenberg, on May 3, 1921; her father was an Austrian journalist.

The family moved to Como, Italy, and when she was 15 Ms. Valli enrolled at the Rome filmmaking school established by Mussolini.

Her first movie role was in "The Two Sergeants" (1936). She then appeared in several costume dramas and "white telephone" movies, as shallow comedies of the 1940's were known in Italy. The most acclaimed and controversial movie she made during the war was "We the Living, " a two-part anti-Communist film based, without the author's permission, on an Ayn Rand novel.

Rather than comply with the dictates of the fascist government, Ms. Valli retreated into hiding and in 1944 married Oscar de Mejo, a Surrealist painter and composer, whose most successful song was "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." In 1945 she resumed her acting career, and two years later she went to California with de Mejo, from whom she was divorced in 1952.

But when her strong Italian accent proved to be a barrier to many roles, she returned to Italy, where she worked with great directors like Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci, as well as Claude Chabrol and Ren?© Cl?©ment. She starred in the Luchino Visconti film "Senso" (1953), a role that won her the best-actress award at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.

Her career suffered another setback that year when she was called to testify in a trial following a young woman's murder. After the trial, she struggled to restore her career, but it took several years. According to The Guardian of London, she lived for three years in Mexico, where she married Giancarlo Zagni, but again returned to Italy.

One of Ms. Valli's most recent appearances was in 1995, in "A Month at the Lake," with Vanessa Redgrave. As time passed and her face became gaunt, she took up the horror film genre, in movies like "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face"), made in France.

Ms. Valli is survived by two sons, Carlo and Larry de Mejo.

 

[Feraud]

SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD!!!

Sad news.
One of my favorite movies.
Orson Welles demonstrates one of the greatest film appearances I have ever seen! A cat meowing around outside in the shadows, rubbing someone's leg. Holly Martins looking up the shadowy street. A light from an apartment illuminates the face of the dead Harry Lime, smirking that devious smile...
Excellent!!

 

[Fedorista]

Tell me i'm not the only one who thinks so: The Baron is pretty sinister in the movie, right?

bk

Baron, you've gotta be one of the creepiest looking characters ever in film - Lugosi is merely a BK wannabee.

 

[Robert Conway]

Love that movie.

Orson Welles is in it for about 15 min and steals the entire picture.
Joseph Cotton and the rest of the cast were superb.
The script is perfect, the photography is perfect, the MUSIC is perfect.

The final shot of the film is stupendous. Takes a lot of guts on the part of the director to do a shot like that.

Every time I see it I miss Vienna.

 

[jml90]

There was actually a Law and Order where part of the prosecution is a reference to the ferris wheel scene

 

[Girl Friday]

Bogart Marathon this weekend 8-5-06

The Third Man was on TMC again we had our DVR set to record it, which it did, except for the last 8 minutes, right when Orsen Wells has his finger through the grate! I had never seen it before so, now I am very frustrated and need to get to the video store to purchase it so I will finally know how it ends!

What a great film! I liked it (well, what I have seen so far) much more than A Touch of Evil and Citizen Kane.

Anyway...there is a Humphrey Bogart marathon Saturday!:eusa_clap
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/

 

[Feraud]

Anyway...there is a Humphrey Bogart marathon Saturday!:eusa_clap
http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/

Excellent! You should post this in a new thread.

 

[Girl Friday]

Good idea! I am new so I will try to figure out how to do that!