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Baker follows Reed's footsteps
The film is a cracked-mirror reflection of the faith that brought the Allies through World War II, the promise of liberation now turned sour amid Cold War tension.
Harry Lime continues to prowl the streets of Vienna, where he cold-heartedly sold tainted penicillin for children and magically returned from the dead.
The documentary Shadowing the Third Man, which played at the Cannes Film Festival, chronicles the serendipity that turned Carol Reed's 1949 caper The Third Man into arguably the greatest postwar tale about the new world order of moral ambiguity.
Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles in one of cinema's supreme scene-stealing roles, The Third Man is a comic thriller that out-Hitchcocks Alfred Hitchcock for its mix of action, suspense and sardonic humor.
It's a cracked-mirror reflection of the faith that brought the Allies through World War II, the promise of liberation now turned sour amid Cold War tension.
"It's the world after World War II. Three years since Auschwitz and Hiroshima. It's the next film after Casablanca," said Frederick Baker, who directed Shadowing the Third Man. Casablanca was about the optimism of fighting the enemy, of liberating Europe from tyrants.
"The Third Man is about the kind of melancholy, the hangover after that. The ruins, the rubble and the moral doubt. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys? Because what happened to Europe after that? Stalin happened."
Topping the British Film Institute's list of best movies ever, The Third Man stars Cotten as pulp Western author Holly Martins, who arrives in Vienna to renew his friendship with childhood pal Harry Lime (Welles).
Except Holly gets there just in time to bid farewell at the graveside of Harry, who's been killed in a street accident. Lingering on a while, Holly falls for Harry's stoically resigned girlfriend Anna (Valli) and crosses paths with British Maj. Calloway (Howard), who tries to steer the naive American away from Harry's shady associates.
Convinced there is more to Harry's death than an innocent traffic accident, Holly pokes around in the underbelly of bombed-out Vienna, where black-marketeering is a way of life and the city is divided into American, British, French and Russian sectors. Holly's investigation leads him into a famous foot chase along the cobbled streets, culminating with a beam of light from an apartment window illuminating a dark doorway, where Harry Lime stands, alive and well.
"The reveal that Harry Lime is still alive is one of the great movie reveals of all time," said writer-director Shane Black, whose private-eye tale Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang also played at Cannes. Shadowing the Third Man examines the making of Reed's classic, including its roots as a film treatment by Graham Greene, the crew's frustrations with prima donna Welles, and the push-and-pull between the two producers, Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, the legendary control-freak studio boss. In Vienna, Reed and company stumbled on the city's gloriously picturesque sewers, the setting of the film's nail-biting climax. Bit players and extras were cast practically off the streets, filling The Third Man with a rogue's gallery of intriguing faces.
The music came Reed's way by blind chance when zither player Anton Karas was hired to play at a party for the crew. Reed was taken by the sound, and Karas' music was used throughout the film, The Third Man theme even becoming a chart hit. A shorter version of the documentary aired last fall on Turner Classic Movies, timed to the 100th anniversary of Greene's birth. The full documentary also is due out in France next month in a DVD set packaged with The Third Man.
The Third Man often is remembered as Welles' film, some thinking he wrote and directed it. Self-mythologizer Welles did little to discourage that notion; the documentary includes a 1970s interview clip in which Welles takes credit for writing the dialogue.
In fact, Greene, with an assist from Reed, was responsible for the screenplay, though Welles did contribute the film's most-famous passage:
"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance," Harry tells Holly, explaining the harsh opportunism that led him to peddle bad penicillin. "In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Guy Hamilton, 82, assistant director on The Third Man, still bristles at the thought of Welles taking credit for the work of Reed, who died in 1976. Hamilton, who provides recollections in Shadowing the Third Man, came to Cannes to help plug the documentary.
"Carol was basically my father. He taught me everything I know," said Hamilton, who later directed such James Bond flicks as Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Live and Let Die. "I adored him and we remained very, very friendly. I care about his reputation. I like to see justice done, or at least my version of justice. And that's why I'm here. If anything, it's my tribute to Carol."
