The Third Man

Harry Lime is dead, which is rather inconvenient for his American friend, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a writer of "cheap novelettes," who has come to bombed-out, rubble-strewn postwar Vienna because he was promised a job. However, some confusion surrounds the manner of Harry's death, and Holly—defying the local police (led by Trevor Howard)—opts to investigate on his own. Holly eventually learns some disturbing news about his childhood friend, who is revealed to be "the worst racketeer who ever made a dirty living in this city." Carol Reed's classic expressionistic 1949 film noir is all sinister shadows and disorienting angles. Vienna, in fact, almost upstages the film's brilliant cast, which includes Orson Welles (who makes one of the screen's great entrances in a star part that—as Peter Bogdanovich observes in an introduction—he was born to play). "This is one of those movies that's even better than people say it is," remarks director Steven Soderbergh at the end of his audio commentary with screenwriter Tony Gilroy, newly recorded for Criterion's two-disc 2007 upgrade of its 1999 single-disc release. Other DVD extras include a second commentary track by film scholar Dana Polan, the production documentaries "Shadowing The Third Man” (2005) and subtitled 2000 Austrian production “Who Was the Third Man?” (taken together, they separate fact from fiction about Welles' contributions to the film, most notably the famed "Cuckoo Clock" speech), an hour-long 1968 profile of screenwriter Graham Greene for the famed BBC series Omnibus, a 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film, an episode of the radio series, a 1951 “A Ticket to Tangiers” episode of The Lives of Harry Lime written and performed by Welles, a comparison of the film's U.S. and British versions' opening voiceovers, an illustrated production history, a look at the un-translated foreign dialogue in the film, and a booklet featuring essays. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (D. Liebenson)[Blu-ray Review—Jan. 6, 2009—Criterion, 104 min., not rated, $39.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1949's The Third Man looks stunning on Blu-ray and features mono sound. Blu-ray extras on the disc are identical to the previous two-disc Criterion Collection DVD release. Bottom line: one of Criterion's Blu-ray launch titles, The Third Man is a must-have for any Blu-ray collection.]