Thirdly

I finally finished The Third Man. I was really impressed with The Fallen Idol last year, so I decided I'd better see Carol Reed and Graham Greene's follow-up The Third Man. It also has a very famous star part for Orson Welles who spends all of ten minutes on screen. Like Fallen Idol, it's got some interesting themes, mostly about the uncertain state of individual morality. Greene seems to have been a bit preoccupied with themes of loyalty and betrayal in this period. Perhaps these are motifs running through much of Greene's work, I've not read it. These preoccupations run pretty deep in The Third Man and I've found myself discovering new meaning in my memory of the details, days after viewing it. Another thing: I can't help but think my ignorance of WWII contributes to my sense of missing something here. The screenwriter and director are both british; the leading man and the guiding plot force are American; the setting is Vienna, in a strange period of divided occupation, and chaotic law enforcement. It's a pretty loaded setup, ripe for allegory, and while I think I get the gist of the thing, audiences a generation ago probably understood its intricacies a bit better. There is a great awareness in the film of the devastated state of post-war Vienna, and this Vienna is certainly a symbol of something.
Welles is pretty cool, especially delivering this line:

``You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.''

I've read that this dialogue was written by Welles and not Greene. Interesting, as it's probably the film's most famous line. The music is also very famous, and it's awesome. Just a man playing an instrument called a zither. You'll recognize it when you hear it.
I don't know if it's better than The Fallen Idol, but they go together very well. Watch them both and you'll have some things to keep you thinking for a while. I don't think many of Reed's films are available on DVD yet, but I'd like to see a few of them, so please release them.