Product Description

Cynical 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 haunting deep focus shots off-kilter angles and dramatic use of light and shadow The Third Man directed by the inimitable Carol Reed only grows in stature as the years pass. System Requirements:Running Time: 104 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 715515023429 Manufacturer No: CC1690DDVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5570 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2007-05-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, German, Russian
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
There have been few better movies in the history of the planet than The Third Man, and fewer still as brilliantly directed from second to second. Orson Welles played the title role, and his legend has tended to engulf the film. But it was directed by Carol Reed and written--except for a Wellesian riff on the Borgias--by Graham Greene, and the credit for this masterpiece is properly theirs. Theirs and Joseph Cotten's; for awesome as Welles is, his Citizen Kane second banana is onscreen about six times as much, and Cotten uses every minute to create one of the most distinctive--if also forlorn--of modern heroes.

You know the story. Holly Martins (Cotten), a writer of pulp Westerns and one of life's congenital third-raters, arrives in post-WWII Vienna only to learn that his old pal Harry Lime, the guy who sent him his plane ticket, is being buried. Everybody, from a cynical British cop named Calloway (Trevor Howard) to Harry's Continental knockout of a girlfriend (Alida Valli) and his sundry absurd/Euro-sinister business associates, feels that Holly should get on another plane and go home. He doesn't. Things come to light. Other deaths follow. The world lies in utter ruin.

The Third Man completed a sublime hat trick--an international critical and popular smash following upon the success of Reed's Odd Man Out ('47) and The Fallen Idol ('48). Although other filmmakers had begun to use war-ravaged Europe as a great movie set, The Third Man is so vivid in its canny mix of gray semidocumentary and insanely angular, Expressionist/Surrealist chiaroscuro that it seems to have imagined not only the postwar thriller but also postwar Europe itself singlehandedly.

What great movie moments: The throwaway details like a mourner who forgets to drop his wreath on a newly dug grave. The sly editing whereby thick-headed Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee, once and future "M" to 007) goes on leafing through a magazine, knowing just the moment he must rise and subdue the nervy Yank who would take a punch at his boss. The way Anton Karas's legendary zither score seems to jangle in the very guy-lines of a bridge where, far below Robert Krasker's Oscar-winning camera, the Third Man calls a war council. The shadow of a dead man towering, big as Europe, over the nighttime streets of Vienna. --Richard T. Jameson

Amazon.com
The fractured Europe post-World War II is perfectly captured in Carol Reed's masterpiece thriller, set in a Vienna still shell-shocked from battle. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an alcoholic pulp writer come to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But when Cotton first arrives in Vienna, Lime's funeral is under way. From Lime's girlfriend and an occupying British officer, Martins learns of allegations of Lime's involvement in racketeering, which Martins vows to clear from his friend's reputation. As he is drawn deeper into postwar intrigue, Martins finds layer under layer of deception, which he desperately tries to sort out. Welles's long-delayed entrance in the film has become one of the hallmarks of modern cinematography, and it is just one of dozens of cockeyed camera angles that seem to mirror the off-kilter postwar society. Cotten and Welles give career-making performances, and the Anton Karas zither theme will haunt you. --Anne Hurley

On the DVD
Even by Criterion's luxurious standards, this new 2 disc edition of the The Third Man is abundant and fascinating. The chatty and adoring commentary by director Steven Soderbergh (The Limey) and screenwriter Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity) perfectly complements the dry but impressively in-depth scholarly discussion by Dana Polan. The best of the three wildly different documentaries (all of them substantial) is a 1968 interview with Graham Greene, in which Greene himself refuses to be filmed; instead, as we hear Greene speaking, we watch atmospheric footage of people on trains or walking in cities. Add to this a radio version of the story (significantly abridged) and a radio tale of Harry Lime's earlier adventures, written and performed by Orson Welles, and the enormous cultural impact of The Third Man begins to crystalize. Still photographs of war-damaged Vienna enrich the movie's atmosphere and odd news footage of the city's sewer police is enticingly surreal. An American trailer for the movie laughably misrepresents it, while a British publicity kit offers goofy but ingenious marketing tips. Not everything is ideal--Peter Bogdanovich's introduction is pompous and self-absorbed and there's a fair amount of repetition (only so many anecdotes exist about any movie, even one as intricate as The Third Man)--but overall, Criterion has assembled a worthy tribute to a movie that, to quote Soderbergh, "is even better than people say it is." --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

In my top 10 films ever made
I grew up in Germany in that time and a similar place where this movie is set. From the stories that I was told about the black market, and from what I saw as a child, this movie captures the time and the place perfectly.

The story, acting and camera work are all excellent. I have given this movie as a present more than once. I never lend out my copy.

A moody trip through postwar Europe.
Graham Greene is one of the most acclaimed authors of the 20th century, and, unlike many such literary talents, he recognized the merits of film, and took work as a screenwriter for the British film industry, including several collaborations with producer/director Carol Reed, of which "The Third Man" is the most famous. Greene's works tend to be divided into two main genres: his meditations on Catholicism in the modern world ("The Power and the Glory", for example) and his work in the spy and crime genres, the category to which "The Third Man" belongs. It is also the high-watermark for director/producer Reed, though he would only earn his Best Director Oscar some two decades later with the musical "Oliver!" "The Third Man" is one of the great achievements in film noir, and, perhaps, in film in general.

Greene's path in researching the film is in many ways mirrored by the character he ended up creating, one Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten, a prolific actor of the era who never reached the level of recognition of Stewart, Grant, or Bogart); arriving in Vienna, Greene prowled the bombed-out streets and drank in the Casanova Club, talking with local officials. He was inspired by stories of postwar shortage, organized smuggling, and the interaction of the four great powers in the early days of the Cold War. Martins arrives, having been summoned by his prewar friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles, in what is, apart from Charles Foster Kane, his most famous role), only to find on arrival that Lime has been mysteriously killed in a car accident. The local British security chief, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) insinuates that Harry was a notorious racketeer involved in everything up to and including murder, and Martins, a writer of pulp novelettes about gunslingers, refuses to let that explanation stand. He delves deeper into Harry's world, from acquaintances such as Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutch, who couldn't appear less trustworthy if he tried) and Dr. Winkle (Erich Ponto), who were both present at his death, and, most importantly, Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), a Czech living in Austria on a forged passport provided by Lime to help her avoid repatriation to Soviet-held territory. Martins' first big lead? Witness reports that an unidentified third man was present at Lime's death.

"The Third Man"'s plot suffers from a case of what TV Tropes would call a 'Rosebud': the fact that the main plot twist is common knowledge because of the movie's notoriety (and, like the original Rosebud, Orson Welles is involved). We all know that Harry Lime isn't actually dead because he is due to appear and give him famous speech about cuckoo clocks (though Welles is listed in the opening credits, so perhaps it was never that big a secret). However, there is still plenty in the movie for the viewer to be surprised about, just as "Citizen Kane" retains its lustre.

The movie has several great performances, starting with Cotten as the 'very American' (in the worlds of Peter Bogdanovich) lead man, Alida Valli as Anna, Trevor Howard as Calloway, and an enjoyable comic turn from Bernard Lee (later M to the Connery, Lazenby, and Moore incarnations of James Bond) as Calloway's batman, a sergeant who is quite a fan of Holly's writing. The performance that everyone always ends up talking about is Welles, however, in what amounts to an extended cameo (two scenes, the second with basically no dialogue).

The other notable production components include the music, provided by Anton Karas on his zither string instrument, who was hired on the spur of the moment after impressing the director at a wartime party, and it was an inspired choice, though it may jar some people expecting more traditional noir stuff. The film is filmed in the actual postwar Vienna, still a place of ruined buildings, providing for a very high level of verisimilitude.

Criterion's DVD version provides an extensive selection of extras, including several commentaries, features on the film's production, and, best of all, several older segments that include an interview with Greene on his career, and some old newsreels spotlighting the Vienna of the period, and showing the level of detail that Reed and company were able to capture.

CAROL REED'S MASTERPIECE, and One of the Great Films of Cinema
Carol Reed's The Third Man is his best known film, it was ground-breaking for many reasons, and it is one of the finest and most influential of all Film Noir classics. One of its hallmarks is the exceptional camera work by cinematographer Robert Krasker, for which he won an Oscar. The lighting and angles he used cannot be forgotten. But equally memorable is the music by zither artist Anton Karas, for which he was nominated. It is one of the very few films in which a single instrument carries the entire score.

The story and screenplay by Graham Greene form the foundation for this post WWII thriller set in Vienna about the missing friend (Orson Welles) of an American western novelist (Joseph Cotten). Alida Valli portrays beautifully Welles' illegal actress-girlfriend, and Trevor Howard is the Rock of Gibraltar as the British sergeant responsible for solving the mystery of Welles' disappearance. Old Vienna is wrapped in mystery and fog, full of suspicious people and suspenseful moments. The final chase through the sewers is among the most classic scenes in all of cinema.

Even though Reed did not receive the Oscar for Best Director for his masterpiece, he did win the Cannes Film Grand Prix, and proved his genius as a director. (Welles was not above taking some credit for the success on the basis of association.) Before this, Reed had directed Odd Man Out (1947) starring James Mason, and The Fallen Idol (1948) - another Graham Greene story and script - with Ralph Richardson. After this, he directed Trapeze (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, and Our Man In Havana (1959) with Alec Guinness and Maureen O'Hara - again, a Graham Greene story and script. Even though The Agony And The Ecstasy (1965) with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison was a well crafted film based on a Philip Dunne script, it was a box office flop. Only Reed's final film, Oliver! (1968), would again attract the public, and Oscar - this time with eleven nominations, taking home five including Best Picture and Best Director.

Waitsel Smith