The Third Man (1949)


Joseph Cotten           Holly Martins
Alida Valli             Anna
Orson Welles            Harry Lime
Trevor Howard           Major Calloway
Bernard Lee             Sergeant Paine
Paul Hoerbiger          Porter
Ernst Deutsch           "Baron" Kurtz
Siegfried Breuer        Popescu
Erich Ponto             Dr Winkel
Wilfrid Hyde-White      Crabbin

Directed by:            Carol Reed
Produced by:            Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, David O. Selznick


Set in bombed-out, post-war Vienna, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns arrives as a penniless 
guest of his childhood chum 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, running 
into interference from investigating British officer Major Calloway and falling head-over-heels for 
Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

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An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into 
sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black 
market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, 
only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's 
friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines 
to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.

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An American pulp writer arrives in post-WWII Vienna only to find that the friend who waited for him 
is killed under mysterious circumstances. The ensuing mystery entangles him in his friend's 
involvement in the black market, with the multinational police, and with his Czech girlfriend.