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Episode 114: This Baffles Me!

Writer's picture: Kristin LindstromKristin Lindstrom

The Third Man is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene. It starred Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard, and was set in post-WWII Vienna. The film was made at Alexander Korda’s British Lion Films during the period he worked in London. The film centers on an American, Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that Lime has died. Martins decides to stay in Vienna and investigate his death.



Joseph Cotten (left) and Orson Welles.


The director used a technique called the Dutch angle in which the camera is rotated around the axis of the lens, and relative to the horizon or vertical lines in the shot. The primary use of a Dutch angle is to cause a sense of unease or disorientation for the viewer. Dutch angles are often static shots, but in a dynamic (moving) Dutch angle shot, the camera can pivot, pan, or track along the established diagonal axis for the shot.


Here’s the thing. Korda desperately wanted Orson Welles for the movie; Welles didn’t want to do it. He fled to Europe and Korda sent his brother, Vincent Korda, a director, after him. Vincent brought his young son Michael with him for company. Michael would later be editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster Publishers in New York.


Orson set a drunken trail from Rome to Venice to Naples to Capri. They knew he had no money. Vincent and Michael finally tracked him down. Vincent got him very drunk and installed him in a hotel room with a guard on the door. Vincent chartered a four seater plane and at the last minute bought a large basket of fruit for those back in London who hadn’t had any fresh fruit through the long years of the war.


Vincent sat up front with pilot, with Michael, Orson and the fruit basket in the back. Vincent and Michael fell asleep, and when they awoke, Orson had taken a single bite out of each piece of fruit in the basket.


What a great guy!


So here is why I’m baffled. First of all, The Third Man does not age well. I thought it was pretty bad. And after the great lengths the Kordas went to capture Orson Welles for the picture, he’s barely in it. He has maybe 12 screen minutes at the end of the picture in a role that does not require much acting. Plus by then, he’d lost his good looks and had fattened up.


Sheesh!


I highly recommend Michael Korda’s memoir about his family, Charmed Lives, which is available again after many years. This is where I found the story of the chase across Europe. It’s fascinating and funny as Michael portrays his eccentric and infuriating Hungarian family, from their early days lived in poverty in Hungary, to the peak of their careers in film. Charmed Lives is available on Amazon as a paperback and a Kindle book.

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