Bangladesh, Oct. 1 -- Carol Reeds The Third Man, recently screened at the Park Theatre in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, is routinely described as one of the greatest films noirs ever made. It is certainly that. But to call it a film noir tells us remarkably little about what makes the film inexhaustible more than seventy-five years after its release.

For The Third Man (1949) is finally not about Holly Martins, the naïve American pulp novelist played by Joseph Cotten, nor even Harry Lime, the unforgettable racketeer brought to life by Orson Welles. Nor is it primarily about Anna Schmidt, the woman who remains loyal to Lime even after learning what he has done. The films great subject is Vienna itself-and what has happened to the civilizati...