Often voted the greatest British film ever made, Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949) is an undeniable classic of British noir. Adapted by Graham Greene from his own story and featuring a phenomenal cast, it was a case of the stars aligning for Reed on every facet of his film, from its famous zither theme by Anton Karas to the evocative use of locations in and around Vienna.
The film follows pulp writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) after he travels to Vienna at the request of his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). On arriving, he finds that his friend has been mysteriously killed in a car accident and that, according to the local authority, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), Harry was the one of the worst of the city’s racketeers, dealing in dangerous sub-par antibiotics. Meeting Harry’s lover Anna (Alida Valli), Holly grows increasingly suspicious about the circumstances of his friend’s death, especially when it becomes clear that, according to one witness, there was an unnamed third man at the scene….