Page 75 - Catalog 46 | 2020

47. Carol Reed (director)
Graham Greene (screenwriter)
THE THIRD MAN Second Draft script July 19, 1948
Hollywood: David Selznick Productions, 1949. Vintage original film script, quarto, printed wrappers, brad bound, mimeograph, 118 pp., just about fine. In custom quarter morocco clamshell case (slightly rubbed).
The crown jewel of British film noirs released during the classic noir era, The Third Man was based on an original screenplay by Graham Greene (1904-1991), written on location in post-warVienna in close collaboration with producer/director Carol Reed (1906-1976), in tandem with a novella by Greene of the same name.Though Greene was known primarily as a novelist, he was also a man of the cinema. He was a distinguished film critic and, prior to The Third Man, eleven of his novels or stories had been made into movies, sometimes with scenarios by Greene himself. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British movie of all time.
Director Reed and his cinematogra- pher, Robert Krasker, took magnifi- cent advantage of The Third Man’s post-warViennese locations, just as they had done with the Belfast locations of Odd Man Out filmed two years earlier.The decision to shoot most of The Third Man on actual locations, with non-actors as extras, links it with the Italian neo-realism of its era.The fact that “the dark city,” in this caseVienna, is a major character in the story is one of the things that identifies The Third Man as a film noir.
Greene’s second draft screenplay contains most of the brilliant dialogue and virtually all of the narrative that was eventually shot. Yet there were a number of signifi- cant changes made between this draft and the completed film that went beyond mere polishing. For further details, see listing on website.
$1,500.00
DIRECTORS
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