The Third Man (PG)

Our first film at the newly restored Rex in December 2004 The Third Man remains a huge global favourite. This BFI restoration brings the long shadows back to life.

‘Although his screen time is famously scanty Orson Welles’ Harry Lime haunts every scene. Everywhere but invisible, he’s a smirking Cheshire cat of a villain, a superb case study in shameless charisma as poisonous contagion. It is suffused with irony yet ultimately serious-minded: without personal responsibility, it says, there is no hope for civilisation – however charming the smirk.’ (assorted clever clogs crits)

“In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they have brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? - The cuckoo clock!” (the smirking Welles improv line..?) Cary Grant was down for the lacklutre Joseph Cotton role as the awkward hero - Noel Coward was to be Harry Lime, what a waste and what a fabulous character film that would have made. The best things about this Third Man are Trevor Howard, Anton Karas’ haunting zither, the cat and the girl’s long closing walk. The rest is cookoo.