Review: The Third Man & The Fallen Idol - The New Windmill Series

The Third Man & The Fallen Idol - The New Windmill Series by Graham Greene

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Better than the film? We shall see...

The popular belief states that most movies based on books ("films", for you people across the pond) do not usually quite reflect all of their literary cousin's greatness on the big screen.

I found myself asking that very question after finishing the written "version" of one movie which always, in one way or another, ends up making onto most people's 100-best list: Carol Reed's "The Third Man".

Just to warn the less cinematographically knowledgeable, or whoever who, just like me, didn't actually pay much attention to the initial credits, this movie has unusually taken the opposite path: the script was penned by Graham Greene and - I'm not aware if intentionally or not, either himself or his agent, saw the potential for a post-movie book. So here we have it!

The result is that we are presented with the accounts of the Austrian adventures of one "Rollo" Martins, which, you've guessed it, was later changed (mostly due to Joseph Cotten's polite protests) to a similarly and intentionally absurd "Hollie" Martins.

In regards to the transcription itself, Greene warns us in the preface, that changes are to be expected, naturally, on any movie's literary translation and, going the extra mile, he tries to guess or deduct why they were applied, in the first place. Sometimes it was Reed, as one would expect; sometimes, in all his writing greatness, Orson Welles, who is to take the full credit for adding up the memorable "Cuckoo Clock Speech" to the celluloid version, for instance.

As an encouragement for you to read this excellent work, I won't spoil the ending by saying if it was either happier or more poignant than the one in the film. All I can say is that, it is also, as many parts in the book, slightly different. But still a great book nonetheless!

As for the other half of this book, The Fallen Idol, I think it falls into the "interesting short story" category: Though a bit long for such, the development and characters' depth falls way too short from The Third Man's. I'd rate it 2 ou of 5.





View all my reviews