“Harry” Part TwoBy Michael Moriarty A black-market penicillin that harms and sometimes kills people? Not a bad metaphor for Nazi concentration camps that did the same harming and killing with Holocaust proportions. Harry Lime, just another Nazi?! In the mind of his creator, Graham Greene? Harry Lime is possibly Adolf Hitler himself, if that Austrian had simply stayed in Vienna. No, “that Austrian” had to move to Germany and build the Third Reich. And the odd, film frames within The Third Man?! All askew?! Slanted? And for what reason? I hope to find out before this second article of mine is completed. And, oh! Our leading lady? The actress? She says she doesn’t play tragedy. “Only comedy!” The Third Man itself, however, is not a comedy. Unless you think murder is a joke. Harry Lime obviously thought so. And Harry Lime taught his friend, Holly Martins, “the three-card trick.” Hmmm… The whole film is quite a “three-man trick”. Mysteriously, one of the film’s own Third Man trick, a Mr. Popescu, we now meet at a nightclub. He seems to know our leading lady, Miss Schmidt. Our mystery guest eventually begins to describe “Harry’s” death. This is when “the third man” begins to be missing. Meanwhile, the young boy with the ball? What is he all about? Of course! Upon the boy hangs the whole sub-plot: Holly Martins being suspected of murdering the porter. I knew that wasn’t true because the murder victim had just been speaking with Holly through his window until he turned and obviously saw his murderer! The murder victim knew instantly what his fate would be. However, the boy and the crowd chase Holly Martins, our hero, and his seeming heroine, Anna Schmidt, as if Holly might be the murderer. They chase him down some of Vienna’s most famous steps from an equally legendary church in Vienna. The couple duck into a movie theater. They make a kind of plan there and then separate. Holly walks to Vienna’s Sacher Hotel, where he asks for help to find Trevor Howard’s policeman, Major Calloway. He then hops into a cab, hoping to find Calloway at police headquarters. Before he can say where he’s going, the cab driver begins to race off to where, as Holly suspects, he might be murdered! Instead, he’s been driven to the lecture venue which he, Holly himself, had promised to attend! As might be expected, the host who knows really nothing about our hero, asks him questions about the legendary James Joyce when our hero knows far more about Zane Grey, whom the host dismisses as a joke. Hardly giving an arresting performance, Holly, at his best, begins to encounter a familiar face Just before this, our Mr. Popescu, played by Siegfried Breuer, is briefly seen phoning a friend or friends to join him. He’s already admitted to being one of the men who carried Harry’s body away, having said, however, that there were only two men. Popescu arrives at the lecture and questions Holly about what his next book might be Clearly, Holly begins to describe the very film-story we are watching. The host of the meeting begins to describe Mr. Popescu as involved in a local “medical charity”. Popescu, while waiting for his friend or friends he phoned, asks our hero if his newest book is fact or fiction. “Both,” replies Holly. Then Popescu suggests that Holly would face mush less “danger” if he stayed only with fiction. “Haven’t you ever scrapped a book, Mr. Martin?” asks Popescu. “Never,” replies Holly. “Pity,” says Popescu, then leaves. Soon we see Popescu with two, rather frightening men, all waiting for Holly. Holly runs up the building’s stairs. The two thugs follow. The chase is a long one, with Holly finally escaping by hiding in an abandoned car. Now, at police headquarters, is when, with the invaluable help of Officer Calloway, we learn about Harry’s horrifying penicillin business. Harry steals or stole – we don’t know the entire truth yet – penicillin from the military hospitals, diluting it with something and then selling the now-larger-supply on the black market at a much greater profit than possible. Holly replies that Calloway is too busy chasing penicillin instead of pursuing a murderer. “These were murders!” declares Calloway. “Men with gangrened legs! Women in childbirth! And they used this on children. They used some of this penicillin on men with meningitis! The lucky children died. The unlucky ones went off their heads!” At this point, of course, Holly is convinced that his friend, Harry Lime, is no longer his friend, dead or alive. Holly is now, quite ready to leave Vienna. However, he wants to pay one last visit to Miss Schmidt. With flowers. Yes. To woo her. At that meeting, we learn that Miss Schmidt’s cat only liked Harry. This is possibly the author’s own, low opinion of cats. Now both Holly and Miss Schmidt know about Harry’s penicillin business. “Oh, my God!” might we and all audiences exclaim! That cat, who so adores Harry, knows that Harry is still alive! The cat finds Harry. Or always knew where he was hiding. The cat is part of how Holly discovers that Harry Lime is alive! This begins the second half of The Third Man. Harry runs. There is another chase! A brief one. Harry just disappears! Holly reports to Calloway that he saw Harry alive. Calloway, of course, doesn’t believe him. Then, of course, the extraordinarily brilliant Calloway sees Harry’s real escape route. An open doorway in a kiosk. The stairs in the kiosk lead down into Vienna’s sewers! Yes, it’s major toilet. But, also, Harry’s secret passageway into the Soviet Russian side of Vienna. Meanwhile, Miss Schmidt is being arrested by the “International Police” because of her false passport. Calloway, now knowing that Harry’s still alive, briefly interrogates Miss Schmidt. The increasing depth of her love for Harry Lime is made obvious in this encounter with Calloway.
Holly wants to see Harry! On Vienna’s now famous Ferris wheel. Famous, largely because of this film! Harry shows up! At his request, and on the Ferris wheel, the two of them talk. Amidst their conversation, Harry reveals how cold-bloodedly a killer he has always been! Then Harry tells Holly, “There’s no proof against me besides you.” To which Holly, after a noticeable pause, replies quite courageously, “I should be pretty easy to get rid of.” Amidst all this dark bravado, Harry learns that his coffin’s been “dug up”. With his whole charade and cover of death blown, Harry changes tone and subject! Appealing to their old friendship, he generalizes about humanity and God. He declares that all of the human race is better off dead. Then, after paying tribute to the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, he ends by pointing to the embarrassingly small achievement of Switzerland within all of its peace and quiet: “the cuckoo clock!” With Harry’s exit? Scene over. At police headquarters, Holly and Calloway discuss the best way of capturing Harry outside of the Russian zone, because he’ll never be captured there. Calloway asks Holly to help with capturing Lime. Holly asks, “How much would you pay?” End of scene. It all, of course, leads back to the sewers, yes the toilet beneath Vienna, where the final chase ensues! When Holly, with a gun now, finally confronts the terrified Harry?! We only hear a shot, signifying Harry’s ultimate and final death. Seeing Holly and Miss Schmidt in the final scene along Vienna’s now famous graveyard, it is Carol Reed’s direction and not Graham Greene’s novel that rules this finale. It ends with Miss Schmidt walking past Holly Martins without so much as a glance out of her profoundly contemptuous eyes! In this film, the Devil of some true loves and not their angels, triumphs. Finally, I have no idea why a few of the film frames were so askew. In my wife’s highly informed opinion, however, it is because Holly Martins’ alcoholism and entire world view render him so askew. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@shaw.ca. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty
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