Designing The Movies: THE THIRD MAN (1949) – New 4K Restoration!

 

 

 

 

Hapless American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) travels to shadowy post-war Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old pal, Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Martins develops a conspiracy theory after he learns of a ‘third man’ present at Harry’s death, which leads him on a trail through the treacherous and labyrinthine streets of the still-divided, Allied-occupied city.

 

 

With a screenplay by leading thriller novelist Graham Greene, The Third Man was a box-office smash that won the Grand Prize at Cannes as well as the Academy Award for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (for DP Robert Krasker). The disorienting visual style amplifies the atmosphere of distrust and unease, putting the reliability of visual perception into doubt. And the silhouettes and Dutch angles would later influence similarly paranoid cat-and-mouse projects from The Ipcress File to Better Call Saul. You’ll be humming the haunting zither theme by Anton Karas for days. 

 

 

Presented with an introduction by series host Nathalie Atkinson