The Third Man Reviews

The movie's verve comes from the abstract use of a jangling zither and from squirting Orson Welles into the plot piece-meal with a tricky, facetious eyedropper.

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As powerful and original now as it was in 1949.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

One of British cinema's most enduring and atmospheric thrillers. A genuine and endlessly rewatchable classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Directors like Reed and Wilder created an environment of spatial and moral confusion in which their pulpy narratives could take on the ethical weight of a Biblical proverb.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Greene's story and screenplay, which he accurately described as "a comic thriller," is a gift that keeps on giving, with patter that's never less than brilliant. [Criterion Blu-ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

If The Third Man is a tragedy, it isn't just the tragedy of a hobbled city, scribbled with ruins and parsed into zones of occupation that can't communicate and don't cooperate.

Full Review | Original Score: A

It transformed the way I looked at the world.

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As you watch the film, you feel as though the screen is tilted higher, glowering over you as you wince in its devastating presence, which is probably how Martins felt scurrying through the Vienna darkness.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

It's a suspense-thriller-romance steeped in Hollywood's best influences and 'gimmicks,' yet it's crafted with enough looming European 'art-house' style to topple Fritz Lang into an existential funk.

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This will haunt you.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

An iconic film noir that's still fresh despite being familiar.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

An undisputed masterpiece, this movie captures the mood of Vienna in post-WWII like no other, and is also a testimony to film as a collaborative art, benefiting from Greene's writing, Reed's direction, and stellar cast with Orson Welles at his scariest

Full Review | Original Score: A

Welles gives Harry a mask of irony that turns all moral judgment back on itself. He turns a mass murderer into a wry rogue, and makes his villainy all the more horrifying because we rather like him.

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Do herói fragilizado e patético ao fascinante vilão, passando pela fotografia inesquecível, a trilha surpreendente e uma Viena inigualável, o filme é simplesmente perfeito.

| Original Score: 5/5

The Third Man isn't an eager crowd-pleaser, but it's great. The film is distinctly British, with a wonderfully bizarre zither score by Anton Karas.

| Original Score: A

Is it perfect? Maybe the answer has more to do with semantics than film craft; it's at least indistinguishable from flawlessness.

| Original Score: 5/5

Seen today, The Third Man ... can be appreciated as a prophetic statement on the eventual moral bankruptcy of the one-world euphoria that clouded men's minds immediately after the second 'war to end all wars.'

A monumental arty thriller of British noir.

Full Review | Original Score: A

This handsomely shot black-and-white thriller hasn't aged one bit. Terrific writing, direction and acting never go out of style.

| Original Score: 5/5

About as close to a perfect film as you're likely to get.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5