ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

fanan450 I must say , after 30 minutes from the beginning , I slept , and I continued watching it the next day just to know , why is this on the top rated movies !? and why this movie won an oscar award ! for what !? for the boring story !? or for the stupid music !? a total waste of time . I warn all of you . skip it !!.

gottdeskinos As a film-noir fan I though to myself this might be one of the best settings: Post-war Vienna with bombed buildings, a multinational police force by the occupying countries, investigation on black market dealings, foreign languages and accents all around. The main actor: an American who doesn't speak German, who learns his friend died in a mysterious accident. But sadly they failed to use this setting and the premise to create suspense for almost the entire movie. It's not the cinematography's fault, which is excellent: Long shadows on Vienna's places while people are being chased. Hm, but something seems off about it. They thought let's put it in traditional Austrian music for the soundtrack, well, because it's Vienna. But this is the kind of cheerful music that fits when you're strolling through the streets in bright daylight with a smile on your face and a lady in your arms. It certainly is the wrong choice for a supposedly suspenseful foot chase. Or when you surprisingly see your presumed dead friend across the street. Or while you're in a children's hospital. Or when people are digging at a graveyard at night and reveal who the "third man" was. It kills all mood in a black and white thriller and becomes almost absurdly comical. I guess they felt eager to try out new things. Thank god they dropped it when Orson Welles showed up and they talked eye to eye on the Ferris wheel. Great acting. Another great scene was the chase in the sewer. This redeemed the movie a bit. But after thinking about it I noticed there are plot holes. The soundtrack achieved at least one thing: it distracted me enough to not think about the plot too much.

cinemajesty Film Review: "The Third Man" (1949) - A film produced under mystery and delayed secrecy concerning Actor/Director Orson Welles (1915-1985) traveling Europe before hitting set in season 1948/1949 to met fellow actor friend Joseph Cotton (1905-1994), performing as down-on-luck writer Holly Martins to investigate the fate of the black marketing character of believed-to-be-dead Harry Lime; together they delivered an iconic scene in motion picture history at the Prater in Vienna, which presents itself in post-war exterior setting condition, where cinematographer Robert Krasker opened up his skill-set of dutch camera angles, stark contrast lighting and precise dolly push-ins. Director Carol Reed (1906-1976) keeps his pressure on even under a tight production schedule and his gone-missing Hollywood Star to deliver a picture with film noir aesthetics without denying genre-twisting constant infusions of dark humorous beating inserts over struggling down-beat actress Alida Valli (1921-2006) with charming native-German speaking support actors, sharing language cross-over punchlines for highest revisiting motion picture entertainment, arguably the most accomplished film from the year 1949 of Academy Award contending pictures, which took the MPAA another year to recognize a deserved Oscar nominations for Direction, Cinematography and pitch perfect pacing Editorial job by Oswald Hafenrichter (1899-1973) in spite of denying the ground-breaking screenplay by Graham Greene (1904-1991) any further recognition as well as the simplistic musical score by Anton Karas (1906-1985), who elevates "The Third Man" even after 68 years of reviews to be one of the genre most innovative motion picture.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Anssi Vartiainen An example from the classic era of film noir. Director Carol Reed introduces us to post-war Vienna filled with harsh angles, Gothic shadows, lonely streets and gleaming streetlamps. Pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives to the city looking for a job his good friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) has promised him. Immediately upon arrival he finds out that Lime has been run over by a car. Police think it a simple accident, but Martins has other ideas.Reed is a known expressionist and this shows heavily in the film. Dutch angles fill almost every shot and a lot of time is given for the buildup and the atmosphere of the city. And the film is to be praised for this. Many of the shots seem eerily familiar to the viewer. Not because you've seen the film but because so many later directors and cinematographers have been influenced by it. The shot of Lime's shadow looming against a wall as he slowly approaches is a fine, fine piece of film making and the most iconic the film has.Eerily familiar also describes the story to a tee, but in this case that is not a compliment. The plot is fairly easy to predict, despite of it containing some pretty clever twists. I can only imagine how revolutionary a film such as this one must have seemed like back on its day. But now, as someone who has watched so many other similar films... Well, it honestly makes the film something of a bore. I can appreciate it visually and the actors are extremely talented, but the story didn't leave me with much.And this is honestly the problem with a lot of mid-century films. At least for yours truly. There is something to be said about being one of the first to do something. But if that thing continues to be done better and better throughout the years, is it okay, at some point, to let the first examples go. Am I doing this film and others like it a disservice by not having seen them earlier when I would have been more able to appreciate them?Perhaps. Or perhaps history and time march on, like they always do. Nevertheless, it's a fine film. Very well made, very well acted. And the story is a good one. The fact that it has been made again so many times since then is a testament to that.