In Search of The Third Man (Limelight) Review

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(More customer reviews)I tell it to you straight. A terrific read. This book is lucid, well-researched, intelligent, and beautifully written. And it is supremely enjoyable. If you think the Third Man is one of the great films of all time (and I do), you will acquire more information on the context, the story-line, the dramatis personae, the music (THAT theme), and the politics, than you might ever thought you could need (ie, Joseph Cotten was a womaniser, Trevor Howard was a soak). And you will clear out of the mental attic of the PR mythologizing which has grown around it (ie, that super-ego Orson Welles was the true eminence grise - when he was hardly even on the set). Right wing, nationalist Americans won't like because it shows how the American side of the co-production was focused on how it should present Americans in the best possible light (ie, brave, smart, democratic, etc) and ended up 'dumbing it down' for the American release (presumably because they cynically thought that Americans couldn't deal with Greene's subtle script).
The author holds the director and prime motivator, Carol Reed, in the highest possible regard. Here is someone utterly lacking in pretension; utterly obsessive on the detail; humanistic; a real charmer -someone cute enough able to deploy those actors' inflated egos to help extract the best possible performances (and in some cases get them just to turn up) yet ultimately the workaholic consumate craftsperson. He also shows that while US producer Selznick was a bullying oaf, he also contributed ideas which provided some of the film's real strengths (ie, the last scene which ducks the predictable happy ever after ending).

It is more than a book about a film. It deals with one of the most fascinating periods in the affairs of men and how a host of really talented, sometimes warring, people can together produce true cinematic art.

Deserves to be very widely read, but, Health Warning to Republicans or other Americans with an inferiority complex towards Europeans, it will challenge your assumptions. For the rest of us film buffs a hugely illuminating book.

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Product Description:
Half a century after its opening, The Third Man remains an unquestioned masterpiece of film artistry and, for many, the greatest British movie ever made. Whether it is Harry Lime's magical first appearance or the celebrated cuckoo clock speech or the climactic chase through the sewers beneath Vienna or the haunting theme music of Anton Karas, the film contains some of the most memorable moments in screen history. Drawing on both contemporary documents and accounts of the people involved, In Search of The Third Man explores the many myths that over the years have grown around this extraordinary film, and seeks to unravel the facts from the fiction."...you'll want to read The Third Man...The story of the film's creation is as intriguing as the film itself" -Leonard Maltin, Playboy

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