Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Transfer, Interesting Extras and a Classic Movie
Review: If you're building a DVD library, this should be one of your first purchases. Criterion once again has a great transfer of a film that is one of the best arguments for the drama of black and white versus color. Carol Reed's exteriors and shadows of Vienna are unforgettable. Great script, great acting, great photography, great locations, great score. What else is there? DVD extras...Orson Welles' "The Third Man" radio show, Graham Greene's notes... well worth it.
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Summary: Poor Joseph Cotton, Orson steals the show
Review: The truley impressive thing about this movie is that in a few scenes Orson Welles out does Joseph Cotton in one of his best roles. Playing an american in post war veinna Cotton is perfect. The style and intrigue in this movie are overwhelming, yet Cotton holds his own. Until Mr. Welles shows up, and with a whistle takes control of the movie. In no other movie, except maybe Psycho, can I remember totally being charmed away from the protagonist. In the end, see this movie, over, and over.
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Summary: My favorite film
Review: Beautiful, haunting, funny, romantic, sad, suspenseful...unforgettable. I've seen over 1,700 feature films at the time of this writing, and this one's my favorite.
Rating:
Summary: the Noir-est of Film Noir
Review: This is one of my favorite post-war movies. Set in Vienna, divided after the war, a writer comes seeking work from an acquaintance, only to find him dead. An unsettling story of intrigue and deceit follows with stunning black and white cinematography and a musical score with a zither (!) predominating that is both distinctive and memorable. Orson Welles as Harry Lime makes one of the most memorable movie entrances ever. Won Academy Awards for directing and cinematography (51) as well as the big prize at Cannes in l959.
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Summary: The Third Man, by Carol Reed
Review: The Third Man is a movie directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene. It is considered one of the best movies of all time. Note that Orson Welles was an actor in the movie and only appeared in a few scenes (though he did come up with the best line in the movie). END
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Summary: An absolute masterpiece.
Review: Director Carol Reed's "The Third Man", is a brilliant, stylish masterpiece that is often mentioned among the greatest films ever made. The story takes place in post-war Vienna, where a writer named Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) has just arrived to find his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), has been hit by a truck. After meeting one of Harry's friends, Holly begins to wonder about whether Harry's death was an accident or not. There's something that isn't right and Holly wants to find out. From then on, it's suspense, memorable characters and brilliance till the end. "The Third Man" is outstanding in so many aspects, but it's mostly remembered for a few things. Its use of tilted camera shots is a great little touch that really adds a lot. And of course there's the zither music, the cinematography and the look of post-war Vienna itself. "The Third Man" is full of classic scenes from Orson Welles' famous entrance to the scene with Orson and Joseph on Vienna's "Giant Wheel" to the tense and atmospheric ending in the sewers. There aren't a lot of movies that are better than the "The Third Man". It's a classic, no doubt about it, and its one of the greatest movies ever made.
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Summary: Simply the best ...
Review: What can be said about a movie that has stood the test of time, in that it still has the power to move, intrigue, amuse and simply entertain the viewer even *55* years later??!! Do you think that anyone will want to watch "Kill Bill" in 55 years? I don't even want to watch it now (and haven't). The Third Man was made in Vienna at the end of WWII .. so much is clear from the date of the movie, and the very realness of the bombed out scenery within which the story is set. The horrible effects of war are seen both in the surroundings, and within the dark hearts of the racketeers. I'm so grateful that this movie has never been "colored up" as that would have taken away the wonderful use of shadows and light. There are so many truly awesome moments - pick your own! - which just wouldn't be the same in color. I'm thinking of the doorstep scene, when the cat finds Harry, and his smug little smile is highlighted by the light coming from an opened window. And, my favorite ever movie scene, in the last quarter of the movie, where Holly is waiting in the cafe to betray Harry, and he steps out on the roof top above. There is something about the way that Welles moves, and the interplay of shadow and light, that is just beautiful. The actors are all magnificent. Welles' Harry Lime is a cynical, uncaring horror - a very "dirty" Harry indeed (pun intended!) Joseph Cottens as Holly Martins starts out naive and foolish, a total buffoon and innocent, who falls in love with Welles' mistress overnight, but he soon hardens as the full magnitude of his friend's crimes become clear to him. Trevor Howard is the (stereo)typically English Major Calloway. (When Holly addresses him as "Callaghan", he brusquely corrects him and barks that "I'm not Irish" .. lol!) There are such wonderful moments in the script. Not just Welles' cuckoo clock speech, but moments such as the one where Anna, Harry Limes' beautiful Czechoslovakian girlfriend is arrested for possible deportation to Russia, she says sadly "Sometimes he said I laughed too much." That line, so beautifully delivered, always brings a tear to my eye.
I loved this cleaned up DVD. There were subtitles - very necessary in my household, and the zither music was as clear as day (a little bit too clear at times in fact). A very necessary purchase for anyone who appreciates a bloodless, yet deeply thrilling mystery classic.
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Summary: By far one of the top films ever made!
Review: First at all , the ravishing presence of Orson Welles is felt all along this movie in such level you may well state this film was four hands directed . The powerful and menacing atmosphere that surrounds Vienna after the WW2 , the expressionist style , the superb photograph , the bitter and clever dialogues , the high caliber acting level , the somber passages under Vienna's streets , the sideral beauty and presence of Alida Vali , the extraordinary performance given by Joseph Cotten , the unforgettable zither music of Anton Karas and the dark secrets all along the story demands from you special attention. This film won Cannes Festival 1949.
You will never get tired of watching over and over this giant work. A Cold War spy classic. From Graham Greene novel.
Magnificent!
Rating:
Summary: PIDDLY
Review: Alida Valli was Italian, so her translation of the old man for
Joseph Cotten can be excused. "Er war gleich tod" does not mean
"he was quite dead," but rather "he died instantly." It makes a difference because the question as to whether the accident victim died instantly or not is what sets Holly Martin off on his search.
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Summary: A Complete Joy from Start to Finish
Review: Into the chaos of postwar Vienna stumbles Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), author of cheap westerns, looking for his old friend Harry Lime. But Lime it appears is dead, in a traffic accident. There's something decidedly fishy about this accident but the British authorities, represented by Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), have little interest in further investigation. They think Lime was a crook they are well rid of. So Martins sets out to investigate for himself. He questions Lime's friends, Kurtz and Popescu (Ernst Deutsch and Siegfried Breuer) who do indeed seem a little sinister as does his doctor (Erich Ponto), Dr Winkel (`vinkel') who `does not have an opinion'. He questions the porter at Line's apartment (Paul Horburger) who may have an opinion but is murdered before he can share it. And he questions Line's lover Anna (Alida Valli) with whom, it seems to him, his friendship might take a romantic turn. He will prove his friend an innocent victim of murder. He will show the authorities how wrong they are. And maybe he will even get the girl.
He will do nothing of the sort. His friend is neither innocent nor murdered. Major Calloway is 100% right. And Anna couldn't care less about him. He's a hopeless patsy, blundering into a situation he doesn't begin to understand and getting desperately out of his depth. While the first half of the film allows the audience to go a little way to sharing Martins' illusions, the second mercilessly strips both him and us of all of them, right up to the devastatingly powerful final shot.
Orson Welles is excellent as the charismatic but poisonous Lime but the inflation of Welles reputation does rather lead to his contribution being overrated. Joseph Cotton was Welles' superior as an actor and Carol Reed, at his best, was something close to Welles' equal as a director. Trevor Howard was seldom better than as the weary but decent Calloway. And as a writer Graham Greene really had no equal, this wonderfully murky, morally complex tale, being the most successful of many attempted translations of his dark imagination to the screen, with its magnificently intelligent and effective dialogue. (The famous `cuckoo clock' speech was of course Welles' own contribution and Greene was not impressed by it.). And then of course there is Anton Karas' zither music score which puts this film into the same category as the likes of `Psycho' and `The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and very few others, of films that become utterly inseparable in our minds from their unforgettable musical signatures. Indeed it's almost impossible to fault this gem of a movie. Even the most minor characters, Lime's sinister friends, the benign Tommy Sgt Paine (Bernard Lee), the British propaganda chief (Wilfrid Hyde-White) who mistakes Martins for a serious novelist, Anna's emotional landlady (Hedwig Bleibtreu) are all perfectly realized.
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