Monkeyshines Movie Club Presents: The Third Man (1949)

It's finally Noirvember, so Monkeyshines Movie Club presents a classic of the genre: The Third Man from 1949. Directed beautifully by Carol Reed (Odd Man Out, Oliver!, The Fallen Idol) and voted the greatest British film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute, The Third Man follows American writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), who arrives in Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to learn that- GASP!- Lime is dead. Martins stays to investigate, all the while falling for Lime's girlfriend, Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli). Scandal upon scandal, twists and turns! Writer Graham Greene wrote the screenplay (you might know Greene from, as I do, having to meticulously study The Quiet American in high school), and the film is also notable for its highly original and evocative zither score by Anton Karas- it so made his career that the first bars of the film's main theme are engraved onto his grave marker in Vienna. Incredible German Expressionist-influenced cinematography by Australian Robert Krasker (the first Australian cinematographer to win an Academy Award, for this very movie!) also makes the film a thing of beauty to look at. Every actor is superb, especially the deliciously devious Welles. My favourite review comes from Roger Ebert who said: "Of all the movies that I have seen, this one most completely embodies the romance of going to the movies." Come and enjoy a masterpiece of thriller noir: Hitchcockian, sometimes sinister, sometimes comedic, totally engrossing and oh-so-pretty.