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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 0715515023429
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Criterion Collection
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion Collection
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Running Time: 104 minutes
Sales Rank: 3980
Studio: Criterion Collection
Theatrical Release Date: 1949
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Editorial Review:
Studio description:
Cynical pulp novelist Holly Martins arrives in shadowy Vienna to investigate the mysterious death of his old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime, and thus begins an ever-thickening web of love, deception, and murder that adds up to one of cinema’s most immortal treats, as well as one of its trickiest. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s timeless, 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.
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Third Man
True masterpiece in every sense of the word. Try it . . . You'll like it!
Rating:  - Mystery most foul
The lure of the stars of this film give you great anticipation of what will unfold. Joseph Cotton walks a circuitous path to find out what happened to his old friend who has brought him to Europe with the promise of a job. Orson Welles as usual is the character in the focal point even though he doesn't appear till the final third of the movie. The story line is off putting to me, but the actors give a solid perfomrance. This shares the title of a tv show from the 50's but the plot is nothing like the TV series.
Rating: - Blu-Ray disc in DVD case
One of the best movies ever made. But what I'm reviewing is the case. It's my understanding that Criterion is release all their Blu-Ray discs in standard DVD cases in order to blend them in with all their previous DVD releases. I think this is a big mistake. Why didn't they release the DVDs in Laserdisc sleeves? I want to be able to distinguish my Blu-Rays from my DVDs. Any thoughts?
Rating: - The Third Man: A pillar of Cinematic Vision
What happened to Harry Lime? Who is the third man? These are just two of the questions Holly Martin wants answers to in post-WWII Vienna. Martin arrives to find Harry Lime, his long time friend, isn't there to meet him. He goes to Lime's apartment and is shocked when he discovers what happened. Then we are taken on an exploration of this city and important questions begin to rise: is justice possible here and what is its nature?
The Third Man, in its beautiful black and white depicts a city occupied by ally forces, shaken by war, and architecturally disheveled. Camera angles from balcony windows, ancient sewer systems, the lighting on cobble stone streets, and the twisted frames bringing into focus medieval steeples, winding broken staircases, and citizens fraught with paranoia and fear--all add to a composition of unique quality, texture and magnificent vision.
An important highlight is Orson Welles' role. Welles is a master of character acting to the point you can feel his conflict. His monologue after the ferris wheel ride is simply magnificent. You can feel Martin's conflict too, as he decides between the truth and friendship, justice or loyalty, during the tension ridden final moments of the film!
As the film progresses the characters cement a representation of different ideas: The English soldier, Callaway, is a realist, Anna is a fatalist, and Holly Martin, the American, is fittingly the idealist, who almost naively believes in a higher sense of justice ... Read More
Rating: - Great Film Noir,and Criterion Showcases it with quality and class!
Well,Criterion has another release triumph here with "The Third Man".Criterion is well known for its' quality and an eclectic array of films already released in its' catalogues with many more on the way.Most are unavailable anywhere with Criterion consistently setting the release standards for DVDs,and this film is no exception.
"The Third Man" is a film originally released in /49 in Britain to great acclaim(this is the film we see),then released a year later in the U.S.The latter market had about 11 minutes cut out of it and the opening narrative changed from director Carol Reed's voice to star Joseph Cottons'.
This two disc collection includes everything you ever wanted to know about this film,and so much more.Included is a nine minute vignette with a self explanatory title "Insiders' Info" ,the US Trailer,the UK Press Book,another small vignette translating the foreign language sequences into English with sub-titles(five min.),a /51 radio show starring Orson Welles as "Harry Lime" in "Ticket to Tangiers",a Lux Radio Theatre show from /51 of "The Third Man",an award winning documentary from 2000 called"Who was the Third Man?"(30 min),a /68 profile of Graham Greene from the BBC show "Omnibus",a three min./54 newsreel of zither player Anton Karas at London's Empress Club,another three min.Pathe newsreel of the policing of the Vienna sewers called "The Underground of Vienna",and "The Third Man's Vienna",a background vignette on the real post war Vienna that Greene brings to life in the film.To ... Read More
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