The Third Man - Graham Greene

I remember studying The Third Man when I was about ten or eleven years old, but aside from this vague recollection, I've held on to very little. Having read a few of Greene's novels including The Quite American (pertinent when I went to Vietnam in August 2007), Brighton Rock, Monsignor Quixote, and perhaps my favourite Our Man in Havana (which I'm sure to re-read and feel obliged to blog), I was drawn to The Third Man because it was not only a short quick read but it had also become quite an important cultural artistic piece in my mind because it was also a film (1949), with Orson Welles as the enigmatic Harry Lime, set in Vienna with some stunningly hypnotic cinematography; the clatter of shoes on the rain soaked cobbled streets, the tumbling scuffle of rubble, the clunking of latches and the sliding wooden door of the ferris wheel carriage, the black and white images, - there just seems to be something rustic and deeply satisfying about this pseudo-murder-mystery film beyond just the mechanical workings of plot and narrative. And because Greene produced the screenplay, I can safely say I much preferred the film!

For anyone who's seen the film and wants to revisit one of the truelly wonderful moments in cincematic history, or anyone who doesn't intend to watch the film but is happy to cut to the chase with one of the truelly wonderful moments in cinematic history, HAVE A LOOK on YOUTUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-MXlqC8YeE&feature=related