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Two Masters of Intrigue

By Staff Writer Jim Cohn

The Answer to October's quiz question: Far and away, Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's best-known novel. But, the Gothic-Victorian author wrote six other, lesser-known novels. Name one of them.

The Answer: In addition to Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley also wrote: Valperga or Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca, (1823); The Last Man, (1826); The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance, (1830); Lodore, (1835); Falkner: A Novel, (1837); Mathilda, (first published in 1959).

The Third Man
(1949)
An Original Screenplay by Graham Greene
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Holly Martins: Joseph Cotton; Harry Lime: Orson Welles; Anna Schmidt: Alida Valli; Major Calloway: Trevor Howard; Sergeant Paine: Bernard Lee


Brooding Brilliance

Graham Greene is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He is also one of its most widely read, respected (he was nominated more than once for the Pulitzer, but never won), and versatile. During his career he produced novels, short stories, book and movie reviews, and adapted the stories of others for the screen, as well as writing his own original screenplays.

Greene was born in England in 1904. His father, Charles, was the headmaster of the Berkhamsted School, which Greene attended, and his mother, Marion Raymond Greene, was a first cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson. It is widely acknowledged that Greene was a moody boy, perhaps from enduring constant harassment from the other students at the school because his father was headmaster. Their mistreatment caused him to leave the school of his own volition, an action that his father interpreted as a mental breakdown. Consequently, he sent Graham to London to live with a therapist, Kenneth Richmond. Richmond encouraged Greene to write and introduced him to his circle of literary friends, which included the poet Walter de la Mare.

The Third Man remains one of Graham Greene's most popular works. In his own words... "My film story, The Third Man, was never written to be read but only to be seen.... long before, on the flap of an envelope, I had written an opening paragraph: 'I had paid my last farewell to Harry a week ago, when his coffin was lowered into the frozen February ground, so that it was with incredulity that I saw him pass by, without a sign of recognition, among the host of strangers in the Strand.' I, like my hero, had not the least inkling of an explanation, so when Alexander Korda, over dinner, asked me to write a film for Carol Reed...I had nothing more to offer him except this paragraph...."

The Movie

For those who may not know it, and without giving away the ending, here is the story of The Third Man. Holly Martins, a naďve, out-of-work American writer of pulp westerns, has been called to post-WWII Vienna--a bombed out shell of a city, beset with rampant black marketeering--by his best friend, Harry Lime. Lime has offered him a job and, nearly penniless, Martins is happy to accept. When he arrives in Vienna he learns, to his dismay, that Lime was accidentally killed in a traffic accident and is to be buried that very day. He attends the funeral and, afterward, is taken for drinks to a local tavern by Major Calloway of the British occupation force. Calloway reveals that Lime was the worst racketeer in the city. Martins refuses to believe him; the accusation is completely opposed to the fun-loving, boyish and charming friend he's known since childhood. Calloway gives him some money, arranges for a room for the night in a military hotel, and advises him to leave on the next day's flight out. But Martins ignores him and stays to prove his friend's innocence. He talks to two of Lime's friends who tell him that, after the car hit Lime, they carried his body from the street. But, the manager of the building where Lime had been staying saw the whole thing and tells Martins that a third man helped carry Lime's body to safety. Confused by this discrepancy, Martins is more determined than ever to discover the truth. His investigation leads him down a trail of intrigue, duplicity, and murder, where he discovers more about his best friend than he wanted to know.

Variations of this plot have been used quite often. But, fifty-four years ago, when the film was released, it was a novel offering for the silver screen, and challenged audiences with plot twists more intricate than they were accustomed to.

But, as good as Greene's screenplay is, it only serves as the foundation for director Carol Reed's masterful blending of the many elements that make this movie rise above mere competence. Here are a few things to look for:

Every good writer knows that the story is the thing and allows as few distractions as possible. And Greene was far better than good. He drives this story straight toward its climax in as true a line as any arrow that ever hit a bulls-eye. Every word spoken, every character presented--including a cat and a child--are integral to the plot. Like a finely choreographed ballet, there is no wasted motion.

One more word about the dialogue: it is delivered rapid-fire. There is almost no pause during exchanges between characters. Yet, the timing of the delivery is so deft you won't feel you're being pushed toward a conclusion; rather, you'll feel yourself flowing right along with events.

Black and white is the perfect color medium for this movie. The gray shadings and shadows force a sense of the stark reality of the once great city, humbled by a brutal war. With the camera on the characters, we easily focus on their words, expressions, and actions, and are not distracted by the colors of their wardrobes or the pretty scenery.

Near the middle of the film I wanted to run to the medicine cabinet and grab the motion-sickness medicine. Many of the camera shots -- especially the long shots that focus on the geometric cityscape--are slightly tilted. It's a subtle technique, but the disorienting effect is a brilliant way to convey Holly Martins' confusion and distress as he searches an unfamiliar Vienna trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his friend, Harry Lime.

Finally, when was the last time you watched a movie that was musically scored by a single instrument, playing one composition? Although it wasn't planned, a fortunate happenstance brought director Carol Reed to a nightclub where zither virtuoso and composer, Anton Karas, was the featured entertainer. Reed listened and sensed that the unique sound would unite the settings with the characters and the action, and enhance the confusion inherent in the plot. He was right...beyond anyone's expectations. But be warned, the theme is more infectious than a head cold and just as difficult to ignore. Days later (perhaps weeks later), you may find yourself wondering why people are staring at you...moments before you realize you've been unknowingly humming the zither tune. Like a souvenir from a cherished vacation, it's a wonderful reminder of this great film.

The Tailor of Panama
(2001)
Based on the novel The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré
Screenplay: John Boorman, Andrew Davies, John le Carré
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Andy Osnard: Pierce Brosnan; Harry Pendel: Geoffrey Rush; Louisa Pendel: Jamie Lee Curtis; Mickie Abraxas: Brendan Gleeson; Marta: Leonor Varela


The Spymaster

David John Moore Cornwell sports what may be the best-known nom-de-plume in modern literature. To the world-at-large he is best known as John le Carré, author of many highly literate, psychologically complex and politically astute espionage novels, and the creator of the redoubtable master-spy and head of Great Britain's secret service, George Smiley.

Cornwell was born in 1931 to Ronald Cornwell, a con man who served prison time more than once for fraud. His father's behavior inspired his semi-autobiographical novel, The Honourable Schoolboy, and is considered a driving force in A Perfect Spy, Single & Single, and The Tailor of Panama. His mother, Olive Glassy, ran off with an acquaintance of his father when he was five. His mother's abandonment--the reason was kept secret from Cornwell during his childhood--devastated young David and, as author le Carré, his feelings were personified as the evil mother in Single & Single. It also may be the reason he decided George Smiley should be cuckolded. Le Carré has said, "I've taken the metaphor of my life, kicked it around and given it to Pendel [the duplicitous tailor in Panama]."

This penchant for secrets and double-dealing, so much a part of his youth, became more than the stuff of fiction for the future spy novelist; it became his life. In 1959, he served with the British Foreign Service in West Germany, where he was assigned to make friends of German politicians. Before that, he admits to recruiting spies from the refugees living in Austria. But, it wasn't until forty years later that le Carré disclosed that, preceding his "official" service with British Intelligence, he had been a spy while he attended Oxford.

John le Carré's breakthrough came in 1963 with his third novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. The story was intentionally written as counterpoint to Ian Fleming's glamorized hero, James Bond. John le Carré said, "When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape." In contrast, Spy is grounded in duplicity and psychological consequence, played out against the stark backdrop of the Cold War. It tells the story of British spy Alec Leamas, who is used by his own service--trapped, then framed and destroyed--in a plot to bring down the head of East German intelligence. It was a book that no less a writer than Graham Greene called, "...the finest spy story ever written."

Thirty-three years later le Carré repaid the compliment when he paid homage to Greene's Our Man in Havana. In the afterword for The Tailor of Panama, he wrote, "Without Graham Greene this book would never have come about. [His] notion of an intelligence fabricator would not leave me alone."

The Movie

John le Carré is known for tight, complex plotting, well-drawn characters motivated by hidden agendas, and firm grounding in a plausibly harsh political reality. His fans would be disappointed if he provided them with anything less. But, that same material, which works so well in a 400-page book meant to be read during the course of a dozen or more hours, when crammed into a 110-minute movie...well, you can see where I'm going with this; The Tailor of Panama tries to do more than it should in the time it has.

The story involves British expatriate Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), who came to Panama in the bad, old Noriega days and developed a thriving tailor business that catered to Panama's wealthy and powerful. Now, in post-Noriega Panama, Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), a British spy who has all of James Bond's vices without his class and style, is sent to Panama to watch over British interests in the canal. He learns that Pendel is a former convict who acquired his trade in prison, and not, as Pendel has convinced his clients and his wife, Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), a partner in Pendel and Braithwaite, formerly of Saville Row in London. He's also learned that Pendel has made a bad real estate investment, one that threatens to cost him his home, his business, and possibly his family. Using this information as leverage, Osnard coerces Pendel to milk his clients for information about which way the political winds are blowing. Pendel doesn't appreciate having his comfortable life threatened, but he does appreciate the money Osnard promises to pay him. So much so, that to keep the money flowing in, he fabricates stories about a revolutionary group poised to start a civil war and entwines it with another fabrication concerning the sale of the canal to a partnership of the Japanese and the Red Chinese governments.

This is big news for Osnard who passes it on to his superiors who, in turn, convince the Americans: (a) to support the revolutionaries with millions of dollars and (b) to attack Panama City before the sale of the canal can go through. Such an operation costs millions and Osnard has plans to steal the funds earmarked for the rebels.

Had the movie stuck to this main plot-line it might have made a worthy offspring to le Carré's novel. Instead, all of the novel's many subplots are incorporated into the screenplay: Osnard's womanizing and attempted seduction of Louisa Pendel; Harry Pendel's history and relationships with Mickie Abraxas (Brendan Gleeson) and his assistant, Marta (Leonor Varela), former revolutionaries from the Noriega days; the backgrounds of his customers, especially Teddy, a corrupt gossip columnist; and Louisa's position as an assistant to the Panamanian minister in charge of the canal. All of this baggage, which makes the book a delightfully challenging read, almost sinks the movie.

Andrew Davies, who was originally assigned to direct the film, adapted the screenplay from the novel. But, John Boorman replaced him, and, along with le Carré, rewrote Davies' adaptation. Knowing this, one can't help but speculate whether le Carré, also the movie's executive producer, tried too hard to protect his book by keeping its elements intact and was too influential to have his decision overruled.

I said, above, that The Tailor of Panama tries to do more than it should in the time it has. Perhaps, it might be more accurate to say that this movie is too ambitious to be digested in only one viewing. But, how many people will watch a movie a second time just to find out what they didn't get the first time? Better to read the book.

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