The Third Man - Movie Review

This week's movie is what all Movie critics considered one of the best films of all time.Mr. Roger Ebert and others included it on their top films of all time and this is actually the first time I've heard about it.

I ended up watching "The Third Man" a mystery/action black & white film in the 40's, it was actually this or "Notorious", a Hitchcock film which we all know from watching most of his films are mind-boggling.

The only expectations I have here is that my time would surely will not be wasted.

The films starts with a creepy yet joyful play of strings, It was somehow familiar because it reminded me of Spongebob Squarepants but darker. Upon research it is a Zither score done by an Anton Karas titled "Der Dritte Mann" who ended up getting global popularity after this film.

The movie begins when American writer Holly Martins arrives in post-war Vienna to meet up with his friend Harry Lime who is expected to meet him in the station but was nowhere to be seen. Holly went to Harry's place where he will be staying but ended up discovering that his friend just died of car accident. Him being nosy and maybe distraught of his friend's sudden death went to number of inquiries which later on gives him an idea that his friend was maybe murdered. Incessant meddling and he has found out of his friend's association with the black market and run-in with the law. It was revealed that Harry is still alive and Holly is still sympathetic over his friend but after Holly seen the impacts of his friends unlawful business, Holly decided to help the police to arrest Harry by being their decoy on an entrapment with Harry getting killed.

I'm not a film connoisseur but as a millennial viewer with short span of attention, I could't get my eyes away from all the scenes, I didn't feel any  act was a filler, even the part where he was invited to be a speaker was given thrilling relief with a bit of humor when it started on an anonymous driver just suddenly whisked him away to an unknown place thinking that he is being kidnapped by Harry's killers.

The best scene, hands down, was when Holly first seen Harry, the way they created the act made it easy for the viewers to speculate until a scene where the light just perfectly shows Harry's cunning face was sooooo good!!

Another thing that I enjoyed, which I also think helped killed the monotony is the sparse used of obscure angle shots that evokes mystery and drama. They called it the "Dutch Angle" and it was so obvious and it interestingly added suspicion.

All the characters was on the same level in terms of acting. I definitely had a crush on Harry Lime, who is played by Orson Welles our bad-boy-next-door, He also played Charles Kane in "Citizen Kane".

I hated our protagonist, Holly Martins because his decisions are just making all things worst, which gives drama but we've seen this character before, An American who thinks he needs to know and resolve everything by being too involved! One heartbreaking sight, was when Sergeant Paine was killed because he was so innocent and cute by being this avid Holly reader who also punch Holly when he showede disrespect to his superior Major Calloway.

The only question that I have and still lingering is who is the third man? Was it the one who they discovered in Harry's coffin? Or was it Harry himself?