The Third Man on TCM

[Hemingway Jones]

It's time to break this thread out again, because it's on right now: TCM 10:00 PM EST. Get thee to a TV.

 

[DanielJones]

Dang! I missed it. Look like I'm just going to have to buy the collectors DVD.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Michaelson]

It was one of those movies that Welles gathered his 'Mercury Theater' gang together and made a film.

I've seen it, logged it away as 'classic that's now been seen', and am not interested in ever really seeing it again.

Kind of like reading 'War and Peace'. You do the deed, then never look back.lol

Regards! Michaelson

 

[DanielJones]

Looks like they were having a Joseph Cotten marathon last night. I missed The Third Man but managed to catch the very strange, 'The Abominable Mr. Phibes' with Joseph Cotten & Vincent Price. It's deemed a horror fim but it's so strange it plays off like a comedy. They even had a short roll for Terry Thomas.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Hemingway Jones]

OK, Dear Friends,
You have another shot at this at 8 PM tonight the 30th of September.
Get thee to TCM!

 

[Feraud]

The Third Man is always a pleasure to watch.
Time to log off and get some t.v. time in!

 

[Dinerman]

I'm watching it now

 

[Tomasso]

I just finished watching "The Third Man".

I must say that I enjoy the insightful commentary that the TCM hosts bring to the presentation of their films.:eusa_clap

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Anyone who missed it has another shot tomorrow at 6 PM.

 

[Tomasso]

Now we're watching "Our Man in Havana", dinner reservations have been cancelled and Chinese food has been ordered.[huh] TCM rocks!

 

[Maxwell DeMille]

Speaking of Mr. Welles, here's an old photo of him and Yours Truly working together many years ago... (I'm the one playing the fiddle)

 

[Feraud]

There's a book on tape of The Third Man by Graham Greene read by James Mason. Who wouldn't enjoy that? I like both narrations of the movie, can't decide which one I prefer, but don't mind trying to decide. That Law and Order episode was good. Vincent D'Onofrio reminds me of Orson Welles, he even plays him in a movie.

Mason reading The Third Man sounds great. I will have to look around for it.
Vincent played Welles in Ed Wood!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Once again, everyone 6 PM tonight, October 1, on TCM.

 

[Feraud]

Interesting reading..

1948. Ruins - the detritus caused by the massive Allied bombing of March 1945 (747 US bombers, 1,667 tons of explosives) and then, almost without respite, the Red Army assault on the city: artillery duels, raging fires, 37,000 soldiers dead (Russians and Germans) while the Viennese hid underground in their cellars. It was the ruins which struck Graham Greene when he visited Vienna in February 1948 to research the script for The Third Man. "I never knew Vienna between the wars, and I am too young to remember the old Vienna with its Strauss music and its bogus easy charm; to me it is simply a city of undignified ruins which turned that February into great glaciers of snow and ice." It is the images of desolation which we remember best from The Third Man, the classic film for which Greene wrote the shooting script - the ruins, the Big Wheel and the sewers.

See here for the complete article.

 

[Katt in Hat]

We all thank you for the heads up but...

Anyone who missed it has another shot tomorrow at 6 PM.

Yom Kippur — Date: sunset October 1, 2006 - nightfall

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Here Be Spoilers!

Boy, the setting is amazing in that film: Vienna after the war; the widespread devastation. It's striking. You can see the effect the war had had on the city reflected in the cynical attitude of the film and the people of its Vienna.

The use of shadow and geometry throughout the film always amazes me. Especially in the sewer scenes: the great circles of the sewer and the manner in which people are framed by the them. Another great circle in the ferris wheel and this scene has the starkest light of the film.

My favorite scene is the first one between Holly and Lime, outside with the shadows obscurring Lime's figure. There are all of those interlocking triangles, then a light goes on in a window and there he is, with a provocative tip of his eyebrow.

Many of these angles and effects are used in graphic novels and of course other films. Each time I see it, I am amazed.

 

[Feraud]

Yes the film does have an amazing setting!

My favorite scene is the first one between Holly and Lime, outside with the shadows obscurring Lime's figure. There are all of those interlocking triangles, then a light goes on in a window and there he is, with a provocative tip of his eyebrow.

I enjoy most of the scenes between Cotten and Trevor Howard. They have some good back and forth banter.

The scene you describe above is probably one of my favorite entrances in film I have seen! Everything is perfect in that sequence.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I have downloaded some of the soundtrack from iTunes, including the "Cuckoo Clock" speech, which I now have committed to memory from playing it. I also downloaded the Zither theme music and boy is it catchy. I can't get it out of my mind sometimes.

 

[Feraud]

The theme is catchy. I too have it on iTunes and enjoy it.

Hemingway J-, I will be expecting to hear the "cuckoo clock" speech from you at some point during the QM!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

The Third Man

I watched this again with Daisy a few weeks ago and I am sure I will be watching it again soon.

SPOILERS:

What always gets me about this film is the theme of friendship and honor. Holly Martins is constantly tested whether to work for or against the police and he waivers longer and in more ways than Prince Hamlet! Even once convinced of Harry's guilt, he can't quite be the one to bring his friend down, though Harry is the consumate scoundrel. There really is no bright lining or positive side to Harry; though charismatic as he is. One oculd argue that Holly ultimately helps Harry to get away, so to speak.

Anna makes entirely different choices and she is absolutely sure of them. She never waivers in her loyalty or affections for Harry, regardless of the dire consequences for her. "I'll do what I can for her... If she'll let me."