STORY OF THE SHOT
The Third Man
HOW ORSON WELLES’ SMILE STOLE THE LIMELIGHT
WORDS IAN FREER
THE ORIGINS
Appearing roughly halfway through the movie, Harry Lime’s (Orson Welles) arrival into Carol Reed’s 1949 classic The Third Man is not only one of the greatest entrances in movie history, it also gifts us possibly the medium’s most memorable smile (sorry, Bruce The Shark). In Vienna looking for his missing childhood friend, slippery racketeer Lime, American author Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) suspects he is being followed down a dark street. As he calls for his pursuer to reveal himself (“Come out, come out, whoever you are!”), the yelling causes a woman to turn on a light, illuminating a face in a doorway Martins immediately recognises as Lime. Graham Greene’s script describes Lime’s smile as one of “amused geniality, a recognition that his happiness will make the world’s day”. With charisma to burn, Welles delivers a devilish but twinkly grin for the ages.