the third man be a movie that look and feel not like a movie of the 40 and but like a neo noir of the late 60 or early 70 . this wonderful example of classic noir be one of the all time great film . it combine amazing visuals and sound and dialogue and and act to tell a thrilling story and comment about the atmosphere after wwii . of all the movie durring the studio era ( pre 1960ish ) and there be three movie with cinematography that always stick out in my mind represent gregg toland work in citizen kane and russel mety work in touch of evil and and robert krasker work in the third man ( all star orson welles funny enough ) . i just recently saw a restored 35mm version of the third man . the crisp black and white visuals of a bomb out vienna be so breath take . shadow be everywhere . the unique way krasker tilt the camera in some shot add to the disorientation of the plot . and who can forget the first close up of welles with the light from an apartment room above splash onto his face while one of the great entrance in movie history ( lime give his old friend a smile that only welles could give ) . the cinematography be back by strong performance by welles and cotten and and italian actress vali . the writing of greene be wonderful while you can see the plot twist around cotten tightly . but what make the third man so great be it historical commentary ( well not really historical since it be comment on it own time and but to u it be historical ) . on one level the third man be a story of betrayal and corruption in a post war and occupied vienna . on the other hand and it give the audience a glimpse of the mood of europe after the great war . the uncertainty that the cold war be bring be evident through out the film while cotten be constantly try to figure out who to trust . vienna be on the frontier of the new communist bloc ( we even see the communist infiltrate vienna try to bring vali back to her native czechoslavakia ) . the zither music score combine with the stark image of bomb out vienna be reminiscent of the frontier town of american western . so the third man be not only a wonderful film noir and but a unique look at the brief time between wwii and the height of the cold war .