The Best Movie Ending Ever!

The Best Movie Ending Ever

I was just a kid when I saw The Third Man. We had a snowstorm and that meant no school. After doing some snow shoveling that morning, my folks gave me permission to go to the movies. Our small town had two theaters and it was about a mile walk to town. Mom said she’d pick me up after the show at Newberry’s. I told her I’d meet her at the soda fountain.

It was nice to be out in the bright afternoon and the snowy sunshine. I settled in my seat at the warm theatre with my popcorn and soda. None of my friends wanted to see the movie and I wasn’t sure myself what I was in for. The other movie house had a mushy picture on the poster so I opted for The Third Man. There were about twenty people there, mostly high school kids, the girls all giggly, the boys loud and bossy. I turned to watch a couple in the back row, already cuddling up when the sound came on and what a sound.

The music had a reverting melody, pretty, yet tinged with suspense. It had warmth to it and it drew me in. I had never heard such music. The instrument was a zither and we probably didn’t have a zither in all of Maine. Anton Karas made the movie unforgettable. I learned much later that director Carol Reed had chosen the music. Not sure of a what he wanted , he discovered Karas playing in a beer garden and asked him to write and play the background music. Karas and his zither music enhanced every scene, sometimes soft and soothing and then a frenzy of strings made you almost jump in your seat. It was unsettling.

The Third Man was filmed in Vienna , a divided city, just after World War II. The city is a shambles of ruined buildings and dark bomb craters. Mounds of debris dot each street and roadway. The hero of the story is Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) who is in Vienna to meet an old school buddy Harry Lime (Orson Wells) and work with him on some business deal. Holly, simple and very American, finds his old friend has been killed in an accident. There is a mystery surrounding the death and Holly is suspicious. He is baffled when he discovers that Harry might be alive after all. He looks for a third man who was at the accident scene. Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) is in charge of the British sector of the city and warns Holly to leave. Howard is brisk and efficient. He catches your attention each time he shows up on the screen. The love interest (Anna) is played by the soulful Alida Valle, an Italian actress. She is beautiful, vulnerable, and weary but brightens up when they talk of Lime. She truly loves him and brags to Holly about the fake passport Lime got her.

Holly and Anna stick up for Lime despite the spooky meeting of Holly and Lime at a dilapidated amusement park. Finally, Calloway shows Holly the business Lime is conducting, selling watered down penicillin to hospitals. Holly visit’s a hospital ward and sees children dying from Lime’s business.

There is betrayal around every corner as blackmailers and those doing business on the black market scheme to survive. Holly tries to save Anna from going to the Russian zone because of her phony passport. In the end, he betrays both Anna and Lime. His motives are honorable but he loses the girl and that’s what the ending is all about.

The Third Man opens at a cemetery and the final scene is at a cemetery. Yes, there are many great movie endings. There is Casablanca, and Psycho, and The Usual Suspects…who was Keyser Soze? Screenwriter Graham Green wanted a happy ending but Reed said no. So, we have a drab little tree-lined roadway where Holly leans against a farmer’s cart waiting for Anna. She slowly walks by him without acknowledging his presence. She is the picture of a sadness bordering on despair. Okay, I’m a sentimentalist. I want them to get together and have Anton Karas play some happy zither music at their wedding but it’s not to be. Anna walks toward us and out of sight. It’s a very long scene and Cotton had his doubts. Finally, Holly lights a cigarette as the leaves come tumbling down. He seems to accept his fate. He throws a match to the ground at the final plink of the zither. Brilliant!