The Third Man (1949)

“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. “

• Director: Carol Reed
• Release Date: 3 September 1949 (UK)
• Run Time: 104 min | USA:93 min
• Country: UK
• Genre: Film-Noir , Mystery , Thriller

Tagline: Carol Reed's Classic Thriller

Trivia: During meetings between Graham Greene and Carol Reed with David O. Selznick, Greene was less than impressed with Selznick, who had (according to Selznick’s own son) “become something of a parody of himself”. Greene later mocked Selznick’s dependency at the stage on the drug Dexedrine, better known as “speed”. Coincidentally, Reed also became hooked on Dexedrine while shooting the time-consuming film. Both Reed and Selznick were operating on as little as 2 hours of sleep a day.

Goofs: Continuity: Harry Lime’s sewer scenes were shot in two locations (in UK studios and on location in Vienna’s sewer). In the Vienna sewer location scenes you can see Harry’s breath.In the sewer shots done in UK you cannot see his breath.