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[Why Watch This- Retro Movie Reviews] The Third Man

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The Third Man is the story of Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a pulp western novel writer who travels to Vienna after the war to work for his childhood friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). When he arrives in Vienna he discovers that Harry was recently killed in a hit and run in front of his apartment. Holly carries his suitcase out to the cemetery just in time to toss a cup of dirt on Harry’s WWT-TTM-Cottencoffin. He catches the attention of Major Calloway, a British Major who is in Vienna helping out after the war.

Calloway drives Holly back to a hotel where he puts him up for the night, but only one night. Calloway wants Holly to leave. But now Holly’s interest is peaked, he goes to visit Harry’s girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Valli), an actress with a shady past. Holly and Anna go to Harry’s apartment where Holly learns from the porter that there was a third man present when Harry was killed. A third man!

Much to Calloway’s consternation, Holly stays on and continues to investigate Harry’s death. Holly gets a gig to speak about his writing to pay for the hotel. Finally Calloway decides to tell Holly what Harry has been up to in Vienna, and it’s not pretty. More suspicious characters are introduced and ultimately we learn that Harry faked his death to escape the charges Calloway is preparing against him. One of my most favorite scenes is when Holly confronts Harry at a Ferris wheel somewhere WWT-TTM-Ferrisamongst the rubble of bombed out Vienna. I won’t spoil the best line, and supposedly Orson Welles added it himself, and it is one of the best lines uttered in classic cinema.

Ultimately Calloway convinces Holly of Harry’s misdoings and uses him as bait to capture Harry. Holly agrees to help them if Calloway will help Anna get out of Vienna before the Soviets claim her as a former citizen of Czechoslovakia. However, Anna doesn’t want to be helped, not at the expense of Harry and she warns him of the trap. Harry runs off and a wonderfully filmed chase scene ensues through the wreckage of Vienna. They eventually end up in the sewers, European cities have the most awesome looking sewer systems, where things don’t end so well for our friend Mr. Lime.

The film ends back at the cemetery where they are burying Harry’s actual body this time. The same people are present but the feeling is a little different. The last shot is my favorite, one of my favorite ending shots in all of film-land. It’s a long one of Anna WWT-TTM-Endwalking down a road away from the cemetery. Holly is waiting for her, leaning against a wagon, hat tilted back. Fall leaves are falling…I won’t ruin it for you. But it’s awesome. And, apparently the ending was in dispute between screenwriter Graham Greene and director Carol Reed. Ultimately Reed won the argument and Greene has since admitted he was wrong.

Nobody writes the character of the clueless American mucking things up oversees like Graham Greene. Holly blusters his way through a Vienna in ruins, in the process of being divided and split amongst the countries that won the war. The people are haggard, they don’t trust American strangers, and they stick together. Anna doesn’t care what Harry did, she loves him anyway and she is more loyal to him then to Holly or the British government, or anything else.

One of my favorite “go see an old movie in a real life movie theater” experience was when I had the opportunity to see The Third Man at the Billy Wilder Theater here in Westwood. To top it off, David Birney was there. Granted I only really know David BirneyWWT-TTM-Birney from his appearances on Murder, She Wrote and Love Boat, but still, it’s always fun to see a famous person. Yet, The Third Man is a great film to see on the big screen if you can. The black and white, the almost expressionist style of the direction, the “Dutch angles,” the contrast between the stone and marble opulence of old Vienna and the dirt and grime and rubble of post-war Vienna is a veritable feast for the eyes.

And now, in closing, I will discuss the soundtrack. It’s zither music and oh boy is there a lot of it. The zither music is a character in itself. And what, you may ask, is a zither? I’m not sure, it seems to be some kind of guitar-like stringed instrument. The soundtrack was composed by Anton Karas who was a local musician in Vienna. Reed chose to use this folk music to represent Vienna instead of going in the traditional Vienna waltz direction. It adds to the atmosphere to be sure, but it does take a bit of getting used to, I’m not going to lie. But don’t let it scare you off. The Third Man is considered one of the greatest films ever made for a reason, go see for yourself! And if you want to get a taste of all that zithery goodness- here are the opening credits.

[Why Watch This?] Gaslight (1944)

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duoLet’s say you were always wondering where the term “Gaslighting” came from. I’m not going to judge, ok, maybe a little bit. But let’s say you were just sitting around on a slow sunday evening, slowly driving your spouse crazy by dimming the lights, and then when she asks: “Did you see the lights just dimmed?” You respond, “No, the lights are the same. You must be craaazzzzyyy.”

There you go, the plot to the 1944 movie Gaslight, preceded by the 1940 movie Gaslight preceded by the 1938 play Gas Light. Paula, played by Ingrid Bergman, is living with her famous opera singer aunt who is killed. When we later see Paula she is in Italy studying opera and having a flirtation with her accompanist Gregory Anton. They marry and move back to her aunt’s townhouse in London.

Charles Boyer plays Gregory and we don’t trust him one bit. Did I mention it’s Victorian London? No, well it is. Stick with me though, you won’t regret it. Soon after moving to London, Gregory suggests that they move all of Alice’s (Paula’s aunt) belongings to the attic. While looking through the things, Paula discovers a letter written to her aunt from Sergius Bower. Gregory reacts violently to her discovery, grabs the letter from her but then quickly recovers his smarmy charm.

lightsThings start to go awry for young Paula. Gregory leaves her alone at night to go to “work,” and she starts hearing funny sounds. The lights (the GAS LIGHTS, get it) dim, because, in case you didn’t know this, when you have gas lights in a house and you turn the gas on in another room the gas dims a little bit in the room you are in. However, no one else witnesses these things, and no one believes her.

Then items start going missing, paintings are taken from the walls and hidden in strange places. Gregory, while at the same time acting sympathetic to Paula’s plight, also uses these strange happenings to convince Paula she is losing her mind. Gregory has a motive, leading back to Alice and Sergius, her belongings, and the attic, to drive Paula insane and commit her to an insane asylum, and get her out of the house.

At the same time we meet Brian Cameron, played by Joseph Cotten. Brian is an American police officer “working” for the Scotland Yard. He spots Paula at the Tower of London and is intrigued. As a boy he had been a great fan of Paula’s aunt, and Paula is a dead ringer for Alice. It inspires him to look into Alice’s murder which brings him closer to the strange goings on at the Anton household.

endGeorge Cukor, the director of this film, has always been known as a great director of women. To prove it, he directed a movie called “The Women” in 1939. In Gaslight, a movie made in the 1940s that takes place in the late 1800’s, the woman character is written with remarkable depth. The transformation of Paula from the meek wife being manipulated by her husband, to a strong woman who triumphs over him is truly something to behold. It is the very reaction of Paula when she discovers the deception and duplicity of Gregory, with the help of Brian, that makes this such a rare and extraordinary film. They let Paula, the victim, take her power back, and Bergman does it in grand Oscar-winning style.

So add to that a really awesome leading man in Cotten’s Brian. He holds your hand through the bad parts because you know that he knows she’s not crazy, and no matter what, he going to save her. And what’s so awesome is that ultimately he helps her but doesn’t save her, she saves hersejclf, and well, there you go, it’s a winner for me.

Let me admit that I’m not a huge fan of costume dramas. The fact that this film was set in Victorian London turned me off for a long time. However, I have to admit that once I finally watched it, I was an instant fan. I even started to wonder what color Joseph Cotten’s hair was in non-black and white. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that. And, a very young Angela Lansbury is in this film playing the not-very-helpful maid Nancy, which makes you realize how very old Angela Lansbury really is. But it’s neat to see her so young.angie

So, the next time you decide to slowly drive your spouse crazy, “No honey I don’t think the volume is getting quieter on the radio. Maybe something is wrong with your hearing?” Remember it’s called “Gaslighting” and watch this movie to see the origins of it all.