As we all get ready for the big Carol Reed trilogy at Film Forum, some thoughts on "The Third Man".... *Famously, Graham Greene wrote the script for this movie. It shares some DNA with Greene's "The Quiet American." In both cases, a rather naive American man ends up in a foreign country and learns some home truths, in an unpleasant way. *Greene could be masterful with subtext. In one of my favorite moments in "The Third Man," Joseph Cotten seems to be having a public argument with a man about what kind of book he should write next. But--really--the meat of the conversation is: "Mind your own business. Don't investigate your friend's death." The audience tries to understand the weird tension in this dialogue. Watching at home, you know precisely what is going on. A little dramatic irony. *Another treat in this movie is the use of "misdirection." We think Joseph Cotten is being forcibly dragged to his execution, but in f...