The many connections between ‘The Third Man’ and James Bond

It would be tough to argue that Orson Welles, the man who made Citizen Kanewas underrated, but one of his most underrated films is one that he didn’t even direct – Carol Reed’s 1949 noir The Third Man. Beloved by movie geeks and noir enthusiasts but criminally overlooked by others, it is atmospheric and twisty with some of the most devastating, completely silent final minutes of any film, ever.

Set in Vienna after World War II, it stars Joseph Cotton as Holly Martins, an American writer who travels to the city after being offered a job by his old school friend, Harry Lime (Welles). When he arrives, he learns that Lime has been killed under mysterious circumstances, and he finds himself turning into an amateur detective to figure out how all the discrepancies in the story match up.

Reed proves that he is a master of visual storytelling with this film. The breathtaking chase through the Vienna streets and into its sewers is a masterclass in light and shadow, proving once and for all that expensive car chases with stunt drivers and explosives are not necessary to create hair-raising suspense. The fact that it’s all set to a zither is just the icing on the cake.

There are countless things to marvel at in The Third Manbut one of the most unlikely is how many crossovers it has with the James Bond movies. In the film industry, unexpected crossovers are everywhere. There is even a solid theory that you can connect any actor to Kevin Bacon in six steps or fewer. But the connections between Reed’s 1949 masterpiece and the 007 movies are just too numerous to pass up as the average Hollywood coincidence.

In his book The Third Man: The Official Story of the Filmhistorian John Walsh recounts the extent of the connections. Speaking to IndieWire in October, he said, “I can’t think of another film that has so many James Bond actors, directors, and writers coalescing around it.” For one thing, The Third Man is based on a story by the author Graham Greene, who happened to be a close friend of Bond creator Ian Fleming. The assistant director, Guy Hamilton, went on to make four 007 films, and Bernard Lee, who plays a pivotal role in The Third Manwent on to play Bond’s boss, M, in 11 films.

Perhaps the strangest crossover of all took place after the production of The Third Man had wrapped. When the editing room caught fire, a man named John Glen ran in to save the negatives from a fiery demise. Glen would later direct five Bond films, more than any other filmmaker.

Given that the first Bond film was made 13 years after The Third Man was released, it’s remarkable just how many connections there are between the properties, not to mention the fact that neither The Third Man nor Dr. No was a pure product of the insular Hollywood system. If you want to get spiritual about it, you could probably come up with a rationale for why it all connects so neatly, but if not, it’s at least a good excuse to go watch The Third Man for the first or second or hundredth time.

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