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

  • Out of the Darkness
    1:08:19
    Out of the Darkness

    Out of the Darkness

    Shot on location around Derbyshire, this atmospheric and entertaining ghost story - which sees the dispossessed spirit of a young plague victim making contact with modern kids - is one of the highlights of the latter days of the Children's Film Foundation. Past intrudes on present with increasing...

  • '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.

  • The Night of the 12th
    1:54:09
    The Night of the 12th

    The Night of the 12th

    Detective Yohan Vivès (Bastien Bouillon) has only just taken over as head of the detective bureau of the local police department when he is assigned to the chilling murder of a young woman in her quiet mountain village. But what starts as a meticulous investigation into the victim’s life soon tur...

×