I Finally Saw "The Third Man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

                         The above shot has been famous to me for years, ever since I saw footage from this film used in Peter Jackson's 1994 film, "Heavenly Creatures," a film I need to see again.

                             The teen girls in that film, a young Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynsey are obsessed with this film and go to see it constantly.  I can understand their obsession for this film, but not the reasons behind it.

                                Every frame in this masterpiece is pure gold.  So much so that, while Carol Reed gets directorial credit, I have to wonder if Orson Welles himself had a hand in its making.  So many of the shots rival what Welles did in some of his films.

                                  Welles is a mystery figure who does not appear till midway through the film, revealed by a cute cat.  Alida Valli is attractive and haunting as Anna, who loves Harry Lime in spite of his singular negative qualities.  Same with Joseph Cotten, who once again proves himself to be Hollywood's most underrated actor.  I must admit I prefer Valli in the role of the repressed lesbian recruiting young girls in "Les Yeux Sans Visage."

                                      Everything I have heard about this film is true--the footage in the sewers, the haunting amusement park, that iconic Ferris wheel, and the ride Lime and pulp novelist Holly Martine (Cotten) take on that Ferris wheel.  The images in this film are stunning, the plot striking, and it all came from the pen of Graham Creene.

                                        But it took Carol Reed and who knows who else to get it all on film.  Cinema is much better for it, since it can be looked at again and again.

                                          If you have seen it, you get what am I saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         If you have not, then what are you waiting for??????????????