The Third Man

The Third Man (1949)

Timing: 1:45 (105 min)

7.903/10
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7.612/10
9246

8.1/10
178726

All about film

Video 14

Photo 135

Actors and characters

Release date

1949-08-31

Country

United Kingdom

Production

British Lion Films, London Films Productions

Genre

Thriller, Mystery

Budget

$0

Revenue

$1 226 098

Website

Director

Carol Reed

Actors

Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Orson Welles, Paul Hörbiger, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Bernard Lee
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Alexander Korda, David O. Selznick, Carol Reed, Alexander Korda, David O. Selznick

Operator

Robert Krasker

Composer

Anton Karas

Artist

Ferdinand Bellan, James Sawyer

Audition

Editing

Oswald Hafenrichter
All team (31)

• The film is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene.
• Filming in Vienna took place from October 22 to December 11, 1948.
• 11 minutes were cut from the film for its American release, including the introduction in which the narrator (Carol Reed) explained to viewers what life was like in an occupied city and what it was like to make a living on the black market. This segment was restored in the DVD release.
• Wells had a choice – to receive a fixed payment for filming or a percentage of the profits. Wells chose a fixed payment and lost out badly.
• In Greene's original screenplay, the story is narrated by a British policeman (Major Calloway); the film presents the same events from the perspective of Holly Martins.
• The prototype for Harry Lime in Greene’s novella is Kim Philby, at that time still a respectable agent of Her Majesty and a mentor to Graham Greene. The name of Harry Lime itself is a calque of Graham Greene’s name.
• Anton Carras, the author and performer of the main musical theme, played it on a zither.
• The actors wearing military uniforms in the film actually wore brightly colored costumes to stand out as much as possible from real soldiers. The difference was smoothed over by the black-and-white film.
• At the traditional Viennese cinema “Burgkino” on the Ringstrasse, “The Third Man” is still shown three times a week: on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
• There are currently several tour operators in Vienna offering tourists “The Third Man” location tours. — However, these should not be confused with a department of the Vienna magistrate responsible for the city’s sewer system, whose slogan is also “In the footsteps of the Third Man”.
• Despite its British origins, "The Third Man" is considered one of the classic films noir and was even recognized by the American Film Institute as "one of the greatest American detective stories" in history. The protagonist finds himself in the role of a private detective and, in the course of the investigation, not only becomes convinced of the relativity of generally accepted opinions and moral guidelines, but also finds himself in a situation where he is forced to choose between feeling and duty.
• In 1999, the British Film Institute named "The Third Man" the best British film of all time.
• Orson Welles refused to film in the sewer tunnel. In the scene where (allegedly) Welles' character grabs onto the sewer grate, the director, Carol Reed, filmed it himself.
• During filming, the "Mozart" café – where the meeting between Martens and Baron Kurtz was supposed to take place – refused to be used as a set, fearing losses, so the meeting scene was filmed on a nearby square, simply setting up tables there. Currently, the "Mozart" café actively promotes itself as one of the locations of "The Third Man".