Orson Welles' Film Third Man Review

Oroson's 1949 Film: Third Man

Orson's third man is about the death of a man and how there are two sides to every story and the third one is the ugly truth. The story starts off when a friend, Holly Martins, come to town to pay his respect to a dead. Surprisingly, everyone has a bias opinion about the man. Holly notices he might be the only person interested as to how he died. When he asks Major Calloway, a policeman, about the death of his friend Harry Lime, the officer just brushes the matter off. A man got killed by vehicular manslaughter, and the town seems to claim it was an accident. Holly is baffled that the town is insisting on him to return home abruptly. Like every good, this writer enjoys a great story. He decides to stay around to find Harry's killer, for the sake of his friend.

Oroson Welles influence starts in the beginning when the death of Harry Lime (Welles), brought in an old friend, Holly Martins into town. Harry's funeral was a gloomy one, partially because the only people who showed up to his service was Holly, Anna, his doctor, and one friend. The police didn't seem to care if Harry was dead, and people's reaction to Lime's death was suspicious. Major Calloway stirred up Holly's curiosity when he said, "Go home Martins, like a sensible chap. You don't know what you're mixing in, get the next plane."(Internet Movie Database (imdb)). When he started asking all of the possible witnesses of how his friend died and what they saw, everyone's story seemed to differ. Harry's friend told him a woman who probably knew Harry best, Anna Schmidt. Harry managed to forge some papers so she could live in Europe to prevent her from being deported to Russia. His death left her devastated, comments like, "I don't even know what protocol means." (imdb) depicted how lost she felt about things now. Holly mentions how lonely he was in his school days, and then Harry showed up to become his best friend (imdb). Anna adds, "He never grew up, the world just grew up around him." (imdb). Harry's friends and the police seem to be fixated on the death of Harry Lime. Why was his death so different?

Holly's feeling and Calloway's feelings about the death of Harry Lime became clear when the Major said, "Death's at the bottom of everything, Martins. Leave death to the professionals." (Ivana Redwine) Although Holly was making strides in his personal investigation, the cops seemed to put a stop on everything he was trying to figure out. All this changed when Holly reports he saw Harry alive. The Major immediately rushes to the cemetery in hopes to find a dead man. To his dismay, Calloway, regretfully told his crew, "We should have dug deeper than a grave", "Next time we'll use a foolproof coffin." (Redwine) Calloway took Holly in