The Third Man | reviewed by: William O'Donnell | July 5, 2026
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A noir nightmare where the striated becomes smooth. Masterfully shot. Unnervingly upbeat score. Nightmare logic to its story. Welles = A+
| genre | Crime | Drama | Thriller |
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| synopsis | In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a |
| lead actors | Joseph Cotten | Alida Valli | Trevor Howard | Orson Welles | Paul Hörbiger | Ernst Deutsch | Erich Ponto | Siegfried Breuer | Hedwig Bleibtreu | Bernard Lee | Wilfrid Hyde-White | Alexis Chesnakov | Thomas Gallagher | Herbert Halbik | Hannah Norbert | Eric Pohlmann | Carol Reed | Annie Rosar | Frederick Schrecker | Hugo Schuster | Karl Stepanek | Theodore Gottlieb | Jenny Werner | Reed De Rouen | Geoffrey Keen | Robert Brown | Paul Carpenter |
| director | Carol Reed |