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Thriller

The Third Man

Year
1949
Director
Carol Reed
Length
104 minBritish 104-minute version Version sources ↓

Momo’s verdict: Not recommended. I would choose another noir for the evening. The entrance has more nerve than the argument.

A writer investigates his friend’s death in Vienna, where accounts of the accident refuse to agree.

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MysteryTenseStrange Thriller

Edited by Monocurator

The Third Man: Huge cream lettering rises above a dark Viennese alley and a distant Ferris wheel.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

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What to expect

Holly Martins arrives in Vienna to find that his friend Harry Lime has apparently died. Witnesses disagree over who carried the body, and the investigation exposes the gap between the friend Holly remembers and the man other people describe. Tilted compositions, deep shadows and Anton Karas’s zither give the film a conspicuous style. Whether that style sharpens the investigation or decorates a more definite story is the question worth testing.

How to ease in

Keep track of who supplies each new piece of information and what it actually proves. A contradiction between witnesses is different from Holly refusing evidence about a friend. The British and American versions also use different opening narrators; the version map below keeps those presentations separate.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes black-market medical harm, references to children dying, gun violence, and postwar poverty.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →

The entrance has more nerve than the argument.

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The doorway reveal earns its flourish: a light exposes Harry and changes what Holly knows. My objection is to the argument that follows. Holly hears the evidence, confronts Harry, offers to help catch him, then withdraws when Anna rejects his bargain. The hospital supplies the final push. I find this an over-insistent way of settling a friendship: the harm has already been explained, and the plot adds a demonstration to force the decision. Holly's hesitation is plausible. Repeating the case against Harry does not make that hesitation more intricate. The entrance has more nerve than the argument.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Credits
Cast
Joseph Cotten · Alida Valli · Orson Welles
Screenplay
Graham Greene
Production
Carol Reed · London Film Productions, Ltd.
Cinematography
Robert Krasker

Version map

American 93-minute re-edit 93 min · re edit · US · 1950-02-02 AFI records the American presentation at 93 minutes and identifies it as a Selznick re-edit of the longer British version. Source: AFI Catalog — The Third Man (1949) Checked 2026-08-13

Sources for the facts

Ways to watch and read

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Where to go next

Want a gentler, shorter, or stranger next film? Ask Momo for something like this →
Momo is on shift. Visit Momo Cinema →

More from 1949 → More by Carol Reed →
This film is stop 02 on Film Noir for Beginners: Choose Your First Film → Trail Nº 02
Further readingLikelihood in Statistics: A Plain-English Guide → Journal Further readingThe Third Man Ending Explained: Why Anna Ignores Holly → Journal Further readingWhat Is Chiaroscuro in Film? Light, Shadow and the Shape of a Scene → Journal
More about this film (9)

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