X
- 1949
- TV-PG
- Selznick Releasing Organization
- 1 h 44 m
- 1949
- TV-PG
- Selznick Releasing Organization
- 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
- Selznick Releasing Organization
- 1 h 44 m
- 1949
- TV-PG
- Selznick Releasing Organization
- 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 122 User Ratings
8.4
91% Positive
111 Ratings
111 Ratings
5% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
4% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 122 User Ratings
8.4
91% Positive
111 Ratings
111 Ratings
5% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
4% Negative
5 Ratings
5 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 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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Je mets 1 quand même, surtout pour la petite musique guillerette, ces petites notes de musique étrange, cette ritournelle qui tourne en boucle pendant à peu près tout le film… c’est entraînant et énervant en même temps… et ça endort aussi, contre toute attente.
Mais je suppose qu’elle est (aussi) censée être ironique. De l’humour anglais sans doute… en effet, c’est même adapté d’un bouquin de Graham Greene, cet auteur qui a écrit moult livres particulièrement soporifiques et pas drôles (malgré l’ironie qu’il prétendait y mettre, paraît-il).
Toujours est-il que cette vieille daube est une sorte de comédie poussive et aberrante et aussi un très mauvais film d’espionnage à la mords-moi-le-zob. Ou bien un polar à la godille, mal embouché et navrant de bout en bout.
Mais qui a tué Harry alors ? c’est même l’endormisseur en chef Hitchcock qui en a fait un film, soit dit en passant… mais c’était un autre Harry. (le deuxième !).En tout cas, je meuble cette critique avec un brio certain et je n’en suis pas peu fier… que pourrais-je vous dire d’autre à propos de cette vieille daube de film merdique de la fin des années 40 ? ah oui, justement, c’est déjà la guerre froide et ça se passe non pas à Berlin mais à Vienne ! et Vienne était occupée par les vainqueurs, compartimentée elle aussi !…
Heureusement, les Rouges ont fini par partir en 1956, il me semble… Vienne a donc eu chaud et toute l’Autriche aussi par la même occasion. Pensez donc, par exemple, que la moitié de l’Allemagne était encore sous le joug de la dictature communiste bolchévique !
Mais je m’égare… nous avons assez brodé à propos d’un vieux film de merde qui n’avance pas d’un poil de cul et n’est même pas drôle, même un peu, y compris sous les mauvais auspices du décadent humour britannique suranné en gelée. Putain, quelle bouse à 1 de tension !
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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
