The Third Man
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This was released in 1949 in the UK, well before I was born, and 1950 in the US. I must have seen it in a college film class in the mid 1990s, but I remember very little about it. I'm watching it again on Blu-ray in 2026, as part of my summer of film noir. And now I feel like I'm back in film class, doing what I did back then: learning absolutely nothing about the art of filmmaking, but enjoying a good film. This is considered one of the greatest films ever made, particularly one of the greatest British films, and I can more or less see why. My own estimation of it isn't quite so high, but it's still pretty high. I mean, I can't quite manage to love the film, but I definitely think it's quite good. In fact, I'd say it is my cup of tea, it's just that tea doesn't happen to be my favorite beverage.

Anyway, an American writer named Holly Martins arrives in the British sector of Vienna in 1949. The city is still largely damaged by World War II, and is divided up into different quarters controlled by different countries. Martins had been offered a job by his friend of 20 years, Harry Lime, and was going to be staying with him while in Vienna. Unfortunately, as soon as Martins arrives at Harry's place, he learns tha Harry had been killed by a truck while crossing the street. He goes to Harry's funeral, where he sees Harry's girlfriend, Anna Schmidt, but has no idea who she is, and doesn't approach her. Later, he meets a friend of Harry's named Baron Kurtz, who later still introduces him to another of Harry's friends, Popescu. The two of them had apparently carried Harry to the other side of the street after he was struck, and Baron says Harry had asked him to look after Martins, just before he died. However, according to the porter at the hotel where Harry lived, after the accident he had seen three men carry Harry's body across the street, and that Harry was certainly dead already. This leads Martins to believe someone must be lying, and that Harry's death may have been murder. But a British security officer named Major Calloway doesn't want to investigate that possibility, since Harry was supposedly running some kind of racket (the nature of which would be revealed later), and he seems to think Harry's death was for the best, whether it was an accident or not. There's another security man named Sargeat Paine, who is more friendly toward Martins, being a fan of his books. But of course, he is loyal to his superior officer.

Martins believes Harry was innocent, and decides to do some investigating on his own, even though Calloway wants him to drop the matter and return home to America. Martins has little if any money, but he is put up at a hotel by someone who wants him to give a lecture to a book club in a few days. That part of the plot seems to be comic relief, particularly because the man seems unaware of what kind of books Martins wrote, and expected him to have a kind of literary knowledge that Martins actually lacked. But it also serves to explain how he was able to stay at the hotel. Anyway, he soon meets Anna, and she joins him in his investigations, even though she doesn't seem particularly keen to do so. She was very much in love with Harry, but has her own concerns, as Major Calloway ends up investigating her, apparently on behalf of officials from the Russian sector. It turns out her passport had been forged, to allow her to live in the British sector, but now she may be extradited to the Russian sector. As Martins and Anna spend more time together, he falls in love with her, but she's still in love with Harry.

Eventually, there's a plot twist that I don't want to spoil. But I will say Martins learns things about Harry that he never would have believed possible, and that Harry was not a good guy. There's not too much more I can say about the plot without spoiling the plot twist. I will say the one thing I always remembered about the movie was a little speech by a certain character, which ended with a quip about cuckoo clocks. That was certainly amusing, even if I totally disagreed with the point he was making. I also want to say that I never figured out who the "third man" was, who supposedly helped carry Harry's body. If that was revealed, I failed to grasp it. (If I did know who it was, I wouldn't spoil it, in any event.) But I tend to suspect that plot point was more of a red herring. Anyway, I'm leaving out some important characters and details of the plot. But I can certainly say that I enjoyed the movie, and that it was all quite intriguing. Definitely some very grey morality to it all, as is the norm for film noir, and also some considerably darker morality (or lack thereof), from one character. (Perhaps the only major character in the film whom I didn't feel bad for, in the end. Though that depends on who all you consider "major characters", I guess. There were surely some lesser, but still important characters, whom I also didn't feel bad for.) And really, I wish I could think of more to say. As I indicated before, I know nothing about filmmaking, how different directors do things differently, in any specific ways. I can't comment on camera angles, or lighting choices, or music, or anything like that. When I watch just about any movie, I only see a movie. I can recognize different genres, of course, but generally only on a surface level. So there's a lot that critics like to praise about this movie, that I wouldn't even notice. All I can really say is it's a damn good story, with interesting characters and motivations. And I'm glad to have seen it again. Hopefully in the future I'll remember more about it than I did the first time.