GET 100% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH!

Limited time - use promo code: BLACKHISTORY26 at checkout

Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on BFI Player Classics

Watch this video and more on BFI Player Classics

Start your free trial Learn more

Already subscribed? Sign in

The Third Man

Thriller & Mystery • Classics, Crime, Thriller, A, 31-Aug-1949

One of the greatest British films, Carol Reed's classic very consciously emphasises its time and place - post-war Vienna - yet its resonant themes around loss of innocence and a fall from grace render it timeless. Joseph Cotten plays the writer searching the Austrian capital for his missing friend, Harry Lime. He's disturbed to discover that Lime recently died, but soon begins to doubt the official version of events.

Tags
Vienna, Aftermath of war, Black market, Missing persons
Cast
Joseph Cotton Holly Martin
Orson Wells Harry Lime
Alida Valli Anna Schmidt
Trevor Howard Major Calloway
Crew
Carol Reed director

Up Next in Thriller & Mystery

  • Time of the Wolf
    1:49:02
    Time of the Wolf

    Time of the Wolf

    Following a global catastrophe, Anne (Isabelle Huppert) and her family seek refuge at their holiday home in the countryside, but they arrive to find the home is already occupied by other survivors. Their hopes for safety are dashed by a violent tragedy so, accompanied by a fierce young boy (Hakim...

  • Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
    1:56:57
    Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

    Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

    Legendary Hollywood director Sidney Lumet’s final film is as blistering as any young director’s. In desperate need of money, brothers Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke rob a ‘mom and pop’ jewelry store – only it belongs to their own mom and pop. Murder and time-tripping editing ensue; and Al...

  • '71
    1:39:18
    '71

    '71

    Jack O’ Connell (Unbroken, Starred Up) plays a young British squaddie is caught behind enemy lines in bomb-torn Belfast, who has to navigate his way home while avoiding the competing attentions of rival IRA factions, dangerous loyalists and sinister secret agents.

×