The Third Man at the Victoria

The Third Man had its US premiere on Wednesday 1 February 1950 at the Victoria Theatre in Times Square, New York. The charity showing was in aid of the Lighthouse Guild – the New York Association for the Blind. Among the guests invited to an after-premiere dinner in the Carnaval Room of the Sherry-Netherland Hotel was the charity’s honorary president, Helen Keller.

Being New York, there was no shortage of fanfare, with the names spelt out in some of the brightest lights of the city. “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare once asked. David O. Selznick could have told him: many millions of dollars.

“I want to star the title far more than the stars,” he instructed his sales team. It was  a recognition of the drawing power of a film that he considered his biggest opportunity to make money since Gone With the Wind. In spite of the stars, it was the film itself – offering such a perfect distillation of box-office elements – that was finally  the greatest attraction.

While the word “Third” had been spelt out in the earlier British release of the picture, Selznick insisted that it should be a numeral in all the publicity for the American release. Generally, I much prefer the title with the name spelt out, but I think Selznick’s choice of a number worked well on the giant façade of the Victoria, the digit helping to bringing out the serendipitous symmetry of the title with the advertising at the top of the building for Kiss Me, Kate, which was then in the middle of long run at the New Century Theatre. The 3rd Man. Kiss Me, Kate. 1... 2... 3...

Of the four stars, Trevor Howard is listed last, out of alphabetical order. But he was lucky to have his name appear on the Victoria marqee at all. He might have starred a few years before in Brief Encounter, but, as far as American audiences were concerned, Brief Encounter had been a very small film – successful in arthouse theatres, but playing to only a fraction of the audience that Selznick hoped would turn out for The Third Man.

At first, Selznick had wanted to leave Howard off the billing completely, but later he changed his mind. To include Howard as one of the stars, he reasoned, would contribute to making the picture “very much more important” because it would no longer have the limitations of a Cotten-Valli starring vehicle. The fourth name also served to dilute the presence of the “third name”, Orson Welles, whom Selznick did not consider to be a box-office asset: “I don’t think this trio of stars any more important than just Cotten and Valli”.

Although he was only the writer, Graham Greene was given special prominence because

there was a big audience for his novels, and Selznick was hoping to make some extra money from the American publication of the original Third Man story. But most notable was the attention given to the director, Carol Reed, whose name, Selznick had insisted should be the same size as the names of the stars. “I have the hope that we will be able to give him as big a publicity campaign as we gave Hitchcock when we brought him over to this country.” Back in November 1949, Selznick had premiered Reed’s previous film, The Fallen Idol, at the Sutton on East 57th Street, where it was still running when The Third Man opened at the Victoria. This simultaneous presentation in New York of two successive masterpieces was unquestionably the highlight of Reed’s career.