Joseph Cotten: Master of moods | Interviews

It was not until 1949 that he made another great picture, "The Third Man," playing Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns who is summoned to postwar Vienna by an old friend, Harry Lime (Welles). The film was written by Graham Greene, who reflected the Cold War in the divided sections of the bombed-out city; American, French, British and Russian sectors made life difficult for a refugee like the young woman played by Alida Valli. She was in love with Lime, who is seemingly killed just as Cotten arrives in Vienna. Cotten falls in love with her, but she is loyal to Lime, even as his evil nature is revealed (his black-market penicillin has killed innocent children).

One of Cotten's best moments is in a scene in Lime's old apartment, now occupied by the woman. Holly is a little drunk and rueful that somehow his appeal is not quite the equal of Lime's, and never will be, even though Lime is dead. Shortly after, in the famous shot where the cat crushes against the shoes in a doorway, Holly sees Lime alive. And then they meet at an amusement park, in the famous scene where Harry subtly threatens Holly with death, and then delivers the immortal "cuckoo clock" speech. ("In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.")

The climax of the movie, one of the most visually dramatic chase scenes in movie history, has Martens chasing Lime through the sewers of Vienna. And then comes Harry's second, "real," burial, and the sad scene by the roadside as the girl walks past without even looking at him.

I have seen all four of these films many, many times; "Kane" and "The Third Man" at least 50 times apiece. Their rhythms are a part of my life memories. And so Joseph Cotten is a part, too. He worked on through the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s, sometimes in good films, more often in forgettable ones. Often there was the sadness, and it added a special note even to lesser material; he created characters who were aware life could have worked out better for them, if only fate had not intervened--fate, or a more powerful person who steamrollered past while they were still making up their minds.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmoqakmr%2B3tcSwqmiin6iysbSMnKatrJWjeq6t0q2cq2Wfm3quu86dqg%3D%3D