Skip to main content
The Third Man (1949) opens on a curious image.
Long before we see occupied Vienna’s cavernous sewers and abandoned Ferris wheels haunted by shadows and ghosts, the opening credits roll on a static shot of a zither. It’s our first introduction to the surprisingly jaunty clatter of strings that score the whole film.
Initially, the shot choice is almost kooky, but then a curious omission dawns. No one is seen plucking the moving strings, as though the instrument is puppeted by invisible hands.
Take it as a signal to the audience: “Friends, you’re about to get played.”
Carol Reed’s noir masterwork centers on a broke dime-store novelist, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), arriving in Vienna at the invitation of his old school chum Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Almost immediately, Martins learns Lime has been killed. Badly in need of life direction, the sloshy, grieving Martins tries to piece together accounts of his friend’s untimely death.
To say “nothing is as it seems” would be accurate but trite. The deeper power of The Third Man is more like “nothing is as it was.” Not memories, not friends, not allies, not Vienna. War has warped the continent, and this divided city has become an upside-down map of its damaged soul.
It’s a moral geography best exemplified by the nervous porter (Paul Hörbiger), who—in uncertain English—first tells Martins that his old friend was in a fatal accident.
“Already in hell.” Porter points up. “Or in heaven.” Porter points down.
The Third Man plays in 35 mm at the Hollywood Theatre on July 2–5.
Also Playing:
Academy: 12 Angry Men (1957), I Drink Your Blood (1971) and Nowhere (1997), July 1 and 2. Unforgiven (1992), Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) and Blow Out (1981), July 3–9. Cinema 21: Nightmare Alley (1947), July 4. Cinemagic: Paths of Glory (1957), July 1. Run Lola Run (1998), July 1 and 2. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), July 2. Black Dynamite (2009), July 1 and 2. Live Wire (1992), July 3. Big Trouble in Little China (1986), July 3 and 4. In the Mouth of Madness (1994), July 4 and 6. Before Sunrise (1995), July 5 and 6. Autumn Sonata (1978), July 5 and 7. Clinton: Solaris (1972), July 9. Barbarella (1968), July 10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), July 11. Hollywood: Summer Wars (2009), July 1. Uncle Sam (1996), July 4. Dark Angel (1990), July 5. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), July 6. Yes, Madam (1985), July 7. Moreland: The Great Muppet Caper (1981), July 1. Tomorrow: The People’s Joker (2002), July 2. The Devil Wears Prada (2006), July 3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), July 5.
