1949 drama, dir. Carol Reed, Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles
IMDb /
allmovie. The innocent
arrives in post-war Vienna to accept a job with a friend…
There's a certain feeling of Cabaret here, though since I Am a
Camera wouldn't be written for another two years the influence if any
must go the other way. Holly Martin sees himself as the romantic hero;
everyone else quickly works out that he's just everyone's patsy. But
this is a Graham Greene story, so adultery and guilt will always be
important considerations.
Joseph Cotten had been a frankly unconvincing romantic hero in the
remake of Gaslight, but he's rather better here as the innocent
abroad. I'm also impressed by some minor roles: Bernard Lee (the
future cinematic "M") as a sergeant who knows exactly what's going on
and how much trouble a careful punch in the right place can save (if
anything, this was the sort of role he was typecast in at the time);
and I also rather like Trevor Howard as Calloway, the straight copper
who turns out to be exactly what he says he is. Meanwhile Alida
Valli's Anna Schmidt knows perfectly well how this is going to go, but
even she perhaps allows herself to be briefly seduced by Martin's
straight-on approach to every problem.
And then there's Orson Welles, still at this point able to hide his
girth with a sympathetic camera and wardrobe department. Most of the
posters make it look as though he has the leading role, but he really
doesn't, and that's rather the point; his influence is because the
world has people like him in it, so everyone has to second-guess
everyone else, much more than from what he actually does.
Of course there's plenty of loving camera work of Vienna, including
what would become nearly as clichéd a shot as the Eiffel Tower, the
Wiener Riesenrad (built in 1897, burned down in 1944, rebuilt and
reopened in 1947). It's a jolly convenient way of isolating characters
while still letting them see the world below…
The cinematography is very fine throughout, gradually increasing the
Dutch angles and looming shadows as stress rises (the whole film does
an excellent job of the building and release of tension). Locations
help too, especially the lovely tall apartment rooms like the ones in
The Maltese Falcon. And finally how to make a sewer look interesting
on film: never mind the narrow straight passages, make it
three-dimensional!
There were two spinoffs, a radio series with Welles and a TV series
with Michael Rennie that ran for five seasons. Perhaps inevitably,
they centre Lime, and make him the sort of cheerful adventurous hero
that fits the image that he tries to project, and that he might even
genuinely believe suits him.
I talk about this film further on Ribbon of
Memes.