The Third Man (1949)

Directed by Carol Reed · Thriller, Mystery

Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Orson Welles, Paul Hörbiger, Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Bleibtreu, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Alexis Chesnakov, Thomas Gallagher, Herbert Halbik, Hannah Norbert, Eric Pohlmann, Carol Reed, Annie Rosar, Frederick Schrecker, Hugo Schuster, Karl Stepanek, Theodore Gottlieb, Jenny Werner, Reed De Rouen, Geoffrey Keen, Robert Brown

IHBM7 IMDb8.1 RT99% MC97 Trakt78% TMDb7.9Good

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

My review · Reviewed 09/25/2025

I think the main problem I had with this film is that if you pay attention to the casting, it isn't hard to figure out the mystery (I won't say more than that). The story itself is decent and the movie picks up when Welles finally shows up, but the rest of the movie struggled to keep up with that moment. I had hoped for a bit more with this movie.