The Third Man

A person stands in a dark, wet tunnel with brick walls, facing away from the camera, with arms outstretched touching the tunnel walls on either side.

The most famous collaboration between writer Graham Greene and director Carol Reed, The Third Man is a moody, suspenseful thriller set in post-WWII Vienna featuring Joseph Cotten as the innocent American caught up in strange foreign intrigues and Orson Welles as his corrupt friend — the dastardly, yet charismatic Harry Lime.

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives in a bombed-out, post-war Vienna at the invitation of his childhood friend Harry Lime only to find him dead. Martins develops the ultimate conspiracy theory after learning of a “third man” present at the time of Harry’s death. As he tries to determine what happened to his old friend, he butts up against interference from British police officer Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) and falls head-over-heels for Harry’s grief-stricken lover Anna (Alida Valli).

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Palme d’Or at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, director Carol Reed was deemed the new Hitchcock upon its release. This 4K restoration by Deluxe Restoration on behalf of Studiocanal recent digital restoration brilliantly showcases the film’s expressionist shots of postwar Vienna and the memorable zither accompaniment by composer Anton Karas.

Part of our "Restorations & Rediscoveries" series. Courtesy of Rialto Pictures. In English, Russian, and German with English subtitles.