X
- 1949
- TV-PG
- 1 h 44 m
- 1949
- TV-PG
- 1 h 44 m
Summary Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Directed By: Carol Reed
Written By: Graham Greene, Orson Welles, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed
- 1949
- TV-PG
- 1 h 44 m
- 1949
- TV-PG
- 1 h 44 m
The Third Man
8.4
Where to Watch
Summary Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Directed By: Carol Reed
Written By: Graham Greene, Orson Welles, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
97
97% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
97
97% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Greene's wonderful dialogue, often oddly contradictory, adds to that tantalizing sense of imbalance. [5 Aug 1999, p.G3]
A sharp, exciting thriller that beautifully captures a dispirited Europe nowhere near recovered from WWII, Carol Reed's The Third Man is one of those miraculous films that work on every level.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 116 User Ratings
8.4
91% Positive
106 Ratings
106 Ratings
5% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
3% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 116 User Ratings
8.4
91% Positive
106 Ratings
106 Ratings
5% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
3% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Some of the greatest individual scenes in the history of film, for example, the journey of the cat across the street, the view from the ferris wheel, Harry Lime's fingers sticking through the rain gutter. A real masterpiece of acting, screenwriting, and cinematography.
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Riddled with post-war despair, The Third Man is one of the great British movies. The zither music, the noirish cinematography, the taut writing and the raft of excellent performances combine in an engrossing thriller that matches America's finest.
Although he’s only on screen for a fraction of the film’s running time, Lime (Welles) stands out as one of the screen’s most chilling embodiments of the banality of evil, and a perfect stand-in for Third Man’s vision of moral breakdown in post-WWII Europe.
It's an exciting experience, dazzling and entertaining and thought-provoking. I saw it at Cinema 21 last week and immediately wanted to see it again. I couldn't, so I started researching and read everything I could about it. It's truly great.
Throughout the film the sense of Vienna as a frazzled echo of its glorious past is underpinned by Reed's greatest trouvaille – the discovery of Anton Karas's zither melodies, used as the only musical accompaniment. Half-jaunty, half-melancholic, they epitomise, like the film itself, a world gone sadly to seed.
A peculiarly hollow, centerless blend of theatre and literature, from which what’s missing, for the most part (though not entirely), is precisely the cinema...It isn’t so much that The Third Man is a bad movie—far from it. But it’s far from being a great one, too.
Easily one of my all-time favorites. I mean, Orson Welles isn't in a ton of this movie, yet his moments pierce into you like nothing else!
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I like it very much.Especially this soundtrack.Film for all times! There also were great actors` perfomances and great direction
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I wasn't hooked by The Third Man until Orson Welles' first appearance (in a brilliant scene by the way). Performances and screenplay were OK and the score was cute but absolutely anticlimatic for me.
Its most remarkable achievements are the persecution's staging, the stunning cinematography and uso of light/shadows, and a great ending.
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Production Company
London Film Productions
Release Date Sep 3, 1949
Duration 1 h 44 m
Rating TV-PG
Tagline Carol Reed's Classic Thriller
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
