1949 - THE THIRD MAN, still one of the best thrillers

For a film that is almost 75 years old, The Third Man is still one of the best thrillers ever made.  This film benefited from a creative group of talents that came together.  The director was Carol Reed. Graham Greene wrote an original script. Robert Krasker was responsible for the excellent black and white photography and of course the film's musical score played only with a zither by Anton Karas contributed to the overall atmosphere of the film.

The cast was one of the best assembled for a film.  Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee and Orson Welles.  When not directing himself Welles was generally considered kind of a monster to deal with on other people's films.  In this instance Welles apparently behaved himself and responded positively to the direction of Carol Reed who was a rare filmmaker who actually enjoyed working with challenging  actors.

There isn't much more to write about this film.  I've seen it many times on the big screen and on television and it still holds up very well.  The producers Alexander Korda was an important figure in the history of British cinema and a man of taste.  The American producer was David O Selznick who always tried to overwhelm any production he was involved in with his personality.  In this case Graham Greene and Carol Reed essentially ignored all of Selnick's attempts to influence The Third Man.

 

The running time is 104 minutes, the writer Graham Greene has said that Welles was responsible for the famous "cuckoo clock" speech.