The Third Man

[joanna bujes]

At 01:45 PM 03/19/2002 -0500, Carl wrote:
>Point taken, but one of the many things that fascinates me about this movie
>- -- surely one of the greatest ever -- is the undying love that Harry's
>girlfriend (Alida Valli) has for the thoroughly despicable Lime, as well as
>the contempt she has for the nominal hero Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), the
>archetypal American innocent abroad.  I can't think of another movie whose
>resolution is almost literally in the last frame -- as Valli breezes right
>by Cotton without pausing, en route from Harry's graveside.

Well she says something about loving him because he was "so alive" -- the 
bon vivant, the vital force, in WWII Austria otherwise exploded by war and 
privation....that's understandable. (There are many who choose corruption 
over poverty every day. And they are normally treated as heroes.) And she 
prefers his overt aggression to Joseph Cotton's passive aggressive mr. nice 
guy who writes romantic frontier tales. Even though I don't share her 
feelings for Harry, I do share her contempt for Cotton. (Aww golly 
willikers who is this James Joyce guy? War? What war?)


>BTW, I once heard that Orson Welles improvised that line about the Borgias
>vs. the cuckoo clock.  Anyone know if that's true?

That's what I heard too.

Joanna