Much like the entrance of Laura in the film LAURA, Harry Lime's entrance into the dark world of post-war Vienna is one of the most unforgettable of all times and effectively erased any memory that Joseph Cotten, the main hero (and alter-ego of Graham Greene) was even in THE THIRD MAN. Photographed under an opening window in a deserted Vienna street, Lime comes into focus as a fleeting face with a smug expression and suddenly we remember Orson Welles was included in the credits. It's a very powerful moment -- one which has us, the viewer, shift our consciousness into wanting to see more of him, wanting to get to know him even if he is a shady, corrupted character. It's the One Moment in the film when it seems that time (in a country that makes clocks, something that Lime makes a joking reference to later on) stops dead in its tracks.<br /><br />THE THIRD MAN is the one film-noir that doesn't have a treacherous femme fatale and the usual suspects but shady people and a growing sense of doom and despair. That in essence is the very nature of film-noir, where it began before demanding the appearance of a sexy blonde with evil intentions. A political theme and espionage reigns throughout without it ever being as much as hinted at, and betrayal is at every corner, something that Hitchcock would have loved had he directed this film. There is a distant echo of CASABLANCA reflected in the threesome at the center of this story with Anna being the reserved woman in the middle but this is not a lush romance. If anything, there is a strong anti-romantic sentiment here, not only because Anna has been irrevocably separated from Lime but she also will not be the one whom Cotten's Martins gets at the end. And in that sense, that pessimism is what film-noir is about.