There is something about Orson Welles. His mere presence or association with a film can indeed make all the differences in the world. Carol Reed’s 1949 film noir is a ready instance where Orson Welles despite not being on the director’s seat somehow manages to leave his auteur signature behind.

The movie unfolds in a setting of post war Vienna beginning with the arrival of an unemployed author of cheap and sensational novelist called Holly Martins played by Joseph Cotton upon the invitation from his school mate Harry Lime played by Orson Welles. However, Martins discovers that Lime has died recently under puzzling circumstances. This is followed by narrative built on the web entrapping him in Lime’s connection with the black market, cross continental cops, and his girlfriend from Czech Republic.

The highly stylized use of noir photography, frames captured in odd angles being a highlight in the film, the oblique lines, sharp contrast, opulent use of wide angle lenses truly make the film a toast for the lovers of expressionist or film noir brand of nightmarish anxiety. With the overtone of bitter cynicism and American exiles stranded in a foreign land caught in a snare of lies, deceit and treachery, The Third Man at times begin to look like an evil twin of Casablanca. Any discussion of the film is however going to remain incomplete without the mention of the music, which so devoid of a melodic notion really haunts the film like a spirit of misery crying in the dark.