GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
- United Kingdom
- 1949
- 104 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- English
- Spine #64
SYNOPSIS: Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s evocative zither score; Graham Greene’s razor-sharp dialogue; and Robert Krasker’s dramatic use of light and shadow, The Third Man, directed by the inimitable Carol Reed, only grows in stature as the years pass.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Harry Lime | Orson Welles |
| Anna Schmidt | Alida Valli |
| Major Calloway | Trevor Howard |
| Kurtz | Ernst Deutsch |
| Holly Martins | Joseph Cotten |
| Porter | Paul Hoerbiger |
| Dr. Winkel | Erich Ponto |
Credits
| Director | Carol Reed |
| Producer | Carol Reed |
| Screenplay | Graham Greene |
| Cinematography | Robert Krasker |
| Presented by | Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick |
| Assistant director | Guy Hamilton |
| Editing | Oswald Hafenrichter |
| Associate producer | Hugh Perceval |
| Music | Anton Karas |
| Sets | Vincent Korda |
Disc Features
AVAILABLE IN BOTH DOUBLE-DVD AND BLU-RAY EDITIONS:
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich
- Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by film scholar Dana Polan
- Shadowing “The Third Man” (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film
- Abridged recording of Graham Greene’s treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke
- “Graham Greene: The Hunted Man,” an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC’s Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist
- Who Was the Third Man? (2000), a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 “A Ticket to Tangiers” episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles; and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man
- Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer
- Actor Joseph Cotten’s alternate opening voice-over narration for the U.S. version
- Archival footage of postwar Vienna
- A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Blu-ray edition includes a booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante
- Double-DVD set includes Sante’s essay as well as pieces by Charles Drazin and Philip Kerr
From the CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
The Third Man: The One and Only . . .
By May 21, 2007
The Third Man (1949) is one of that handful of motion pictures (Rashomon, Casablanca, The Searchers) that have become archetypes—not merely a movie that would Read more »
Behind The Third Man
By May 21, 2007
In January 1948, British film producer Sir Alexander Korda, head of British-Lion and London Film Productions, commissioned novelist Graham Greene to write and research Read more »
The Third Man: Seeing Greene
By May 21, 2007
In The Third Man, Holly Martins, an alcoholic American writer of “cheap novelettes” (Oklahoma Kid and The Lone Rider of Santa Fe, among others) and a man who was Read more »
The Third Man
By November 08, 1999
In The Third Man—probably the greatest British thriller of the postwar era—director Carol Reed and screenwriter Graham Greene set a fable of moral corruption in a world of near Read more »
Videos
Features
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Web Exclusives
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Announcements
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
The Criterion Collection
Goes High Definition!
December 15, 2008
Critics have had our debut Blu-ray releases for weeks, and the word is out, coast to coast: “a revelation,” “stunning” and “eye-opening,” “awe Read more »
On Five
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Contests
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Interviews
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
News
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Dispatches
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Clippings
CITIZEN AND FATHER
November 11, 2009
When one thinks of Orson Welles, one can’t help but imagine a genius alone, monolithic—an image perhaps fostered by his greatest creation, the colossus Citizen Kane. Yet Read more »
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Press Notes
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
PRESS NOTES: SEEING BLU
December 11, 2008
Criterion Blu-ray editions debut next week—with Chungking Express, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bottle Rocket, and The Third Man—and the reviews are already coming in. “Chungking Read more »
Book Notes
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
Screenings
GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT
September 03, 2009
Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man Read more »
