“I believe in God and Mercy and all that. But the dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here, poor devils.”

    In the 1940s, a new style of cinema called film noir evolved. The genre, popularized by John Hutson’s The Maltese Falcon in 1941, was considered a response to both the Depression of the 1930s and the impending war that followed. It has been characterized by low-key lighting, stylized camera work, dark urban settings, and corrupt cynical characters.

    Though many of the great films of this time are considered American, my personal favorite was the internationally made The Third Man. Released originally in 1949, the film was directed by Britain Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starred Americans Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles. The film is all about contrasts; it’s extremely dark but has a light tone. It has a comedic score but it’s a very serious story. The cinematography is full of dark blacks and bright whites.

    Welcome to Post-war Vienna. The city has been split into four different zones, owned by the Americans, French, British, and Russians. And right in the center of this is an international center with all four powers policing, speaking in German gibberish. It’s a city full of racketeering, corruption, and whatever dangerous things you might need.

    Then there’s our hero, the poor Holly Martins, played by the amazing Joseph Cotton (Shadow of a Doubt). Holly is a cheap novelist who has been down on his luck since the Depression hit in America. He has come to Vienna to get a job from his old friend Harry Lime, played by the legendary Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil). There’s only one problem: Harry Lime is dead. But how did Harry die? Holly teams up with Lime’s old girlfriend Anna (Alida Valli) to discover the truth about Harry’s death, the corruption he dealt with, and the mysterious third man.

    In the biggest contrast of The Third Man, Anton Karas does the entire score: a light hearted tune played solely on a zither. Despite the dark story line, this zither score keeps the whole thing as a fun, entertaining, and ultimately more brilliant film noir. As the score clashes with the story, it brings out the other contrasts. When a time when film noir was dying, Reed and Greene, two men who saw the devastation of World War II first hand, decided to examine the corruption that had developed during those early stages of the Cold War, while at the same time providing first class entertainment.

    In possibly the greatest cinematography ever in a black and white film, Reed and director of photography Robert Krasker took the world and plunged it into chaos. Shots are tilted. Wide screen angles distort character. Lighting is either too bright or too dark. And shadows create monsters out of seemingly harmless people (see the balloon man near the end).

    One of the keys of the film’s contrasting matters in The Third Man is the performance of Orson Welles as Lime. Not only is his entrance to the film unforgettable (once again a perfection of editing, cinematography, and lighting) but his character’s light tone to all the corruption around him makes him a carefree man. He seems to believe that corruption is almost a necessary item to the world’s survival. In a famous monologue (actually written by Welles), Lime reveals, “You know what the fellow said: 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. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

    It’s also great to see action done so well. The film ends with a famous chase sequence through the sewers of Vienna. What a perfect metaphor. All comes to a close under the streets of Vienna. It all comes clear to whom Harry Lime really is when he’s in the darkest part of the city.

    Film noir soon died out in the following years, but films about corruption seem to pop up all the time now. The Third Man stands out as a testament to the dead genre’s power even over fifty years later. It’s full of contrasts in lighting, acting, cinematography, camera angles, and score. Though people always dismiss black and white films, this is one you have to see.