Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins in The Third Man (1949)
Vitals
Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, moderately successful writer
Vienna, Fall/Winter 1948
Film: The Third Man
Release Date: September 1, 1949
Director: Carol Reed
Wardrobe Credit: Ivy Baker
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I’m lurking in the shadows of moody, war-torn Vienna today to kick off #Noirvember with The Third Man, one of my favorite films noir. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, The Third Man was directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by Graham Greene.
American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) travels to the British sector of Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job working for his old pal Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to learn upon his arrival that “the best friend he ever had” is reported dead and buried after an automobile accident on his street. (“Is that what you say to people after death? ‘Goodness, that’s awkward’,” Holly responds to a new acquaintance’s platitudinous condolences.)
As a mostly penniless writer of “cheap novelettes”, Holly has little else to do but remain in Vienna and try to discover what happened to Harry, whom he soon learns from Royal Military Police officer Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) was “about the worst racketeer to ever make a living in this city.” Despite a contentious relationship with the major, Holly discovers he has a fan in his assistant, Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), who apologizes for having to subdue the writer and assures him that he’s read a few of his Western novels after helping him back to his feet. His personal investigation plunges him into the duplicitous underworld of the Austrian black market with characters ranging from Harry’s shady colleagues to his refugee girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli).
With its iconic score by zither player Anton Karas, Welles’ memorable performance with his “cuckoo clock” monologue, and Academy Award-winning black-and-white cinematography by Robert Krasker, The Third Man remains not just one of the most acclaimed examples of classic film noir but also considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
What’d He Wear?
Lacking the resources to buy or change clothes, Holly Martins spends the entirety of The Third Man dressed in the same wardrobe of a tweed suit, tweed coat, sweater vest, and tie. The rustic charm of Holly’s lived-in tweeds contrasts his more sensitive nature against the smooth shades of black worn by his villainous friend Harry Lime.
While both men dress in hats and coats over suits and ties, Holly looks more homespun and humble in his tweeds and knitwear than Harry in his darker layers.
Despite suggestions that he’s a man of limited means, Holly’s mid-colored tweed suit is handsomely tailored and well-maintained. Tweed has sporting origins and often lends itself to sporty tailoring, but Holly’s suit is styled like a conventional lounge suit.
The single-breasted jacket has fashionably large notch lapels that taper cleanly to the center button of his 3/2-roll front. The shoulders are padded but hardly to the extended of the dramatic “Bold Look” associated with late 1940s American menswear. The ventless jacket has four-button cuffs, a welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets. As Holly wears his suit jacket and sweater in every scene, we see little of these reverse-pleated trousers aside from their side pockets and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms.
Under his suit, Holly wears a light-colored pullover sweater made from a soft wool, possibly cashmere. The sweater’s shallow V-neck frames the spread collar of his white cotton shirt and his woolen tie, woven from alternating light and dark threads. The sweater and tie especially create a textured harmony with the coarse tweed of his suit and overcoat.
Holly’s dark herringbone tweed overcoat has notch lapels with swelled edges, gently rolling over the top of his three buttons for a 3/2.5-roll, though he occasionally wears all three buttons fastened and turns up his lapels, revealing the dark felt under-collar and an additional throat-latch button on the right side which connects to the buttonhole at the edge of his left lapel. The knee-length coat has a long single vent, side pockets with gently slanted welt entries, and raglan sleeves finished with turnback cuffs.
Following the conventions of the era, Holly often wears a dark felt fedora, self-edged and detailed with a dark, wide grosgrain band.
Continuity errors reflect both monk shoes and cap-toe oxfords on Joseph Cotten’s feet, though the single-strap monks seem to intended as Holly’s canonical footwear. In addition to being more prominently seen in shots that capture Holly’s feet, monk shoes nicely align with the dressed-down informality of his knitwear and tweeds. Despite the film’s black-and-white photography, it’s evident that Holly’s monk shoes have brown leather uppers.
Holly’s socks are dark silk. On his left wrist, he wears a wristwatch on a brown leather strap.
The Gun
Holly’s fan, Sergeant Paine, carries a Webley .38 Mk IV Pocket Model revolver, which Holly takes during the climactic search for Harry Lime in the sewers beneath Vienna. Nearly a quarter century after British arms manufacturer Webley & Scott introduced the .455 Mk IV before the turn of the century, the company evolved the design in the 1920s for a smaller caliber, specifically the .38 S&W cartridge—designated “.38/200″ in British service.
The .38-caliber model retained the same break-top operation and double-action trigger as the .455 design, albeit scaled down in size and mass. The standard service revolver was fitted with a five-inch barrel, though Webley & Scott also manufactured a 4″-barreled model (as carried by Harry) and a 3”-barreled “Pocket Model” which finds its way from Paine to Holly Martins. The .38 Mk IV remained in British military and police service through World War II and well into the 1960s.
Holly pulls the Webley revolver from Sergeant Paine’s hand.
What to Imbibe
After Harry’s funeral, Major Calloway drinks with Holly at a local tavern, pouring him shots of Hennessy cognac. One of the best-known and best-selling cognac houses in the world, the Hennessy cognac distillery was founded in 1865 by Irish Jacobite military officer Richard Hennessy, who had retired to the Cognac region of France after serving in Louis XV’s army. Hennessy began exporting his brandies to England, his native Ireland, and the United States, and his distillery became the world’s leading brandy exporter by the 1840s. In addition to this sales prominence, Hennessy has also innovated cognac designations as the first house to use star ratings as the V.S.O.P. and XO gradings.
Major Calloway—not Callahan; he’s British, not Irish—pours another Hennessy for an increasingly inebriated Holly.
Later at the Casanova Club with Anna, Holly orders whiskey, followed by another round of “double whiskies” with Harry’s old forger friend Popescu (Siegfried Breuer). We’re not made privy to the label poured out in the club, though Anna reveals a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label blended Scotch that she keeps in her room.
How to Get the Look
Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins in The Third Man (1949)
- Mid-to-dark tweed lounge suit:
- Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
- White cotton shirt with spread collar
- Light-and-dark woven wool tie
- Light-colored cashmere woolen V-neck pullover sweater
- Dark-brown leather single-strap monk shoes
- Dark silk socks
- Dark herringbone tweed single-breasted 3/2.5-roll overcoat with swelled-edge notch lapels, raglan sleeves with turnback cuffs, slanted side pockets, and long single vent
- Dark felt self-edged fedora with dark grosgrain band
- Wristwatch on brown leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
I’m just a hack writer who drinks too much and falls in love with girls.
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