The Third Man (50th Anniversary Edition) - Criterion Collection
Our Price: $49.88
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $17.98 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
DVD: Region Code 1Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Movie Reviews of The Third Man (50th Anniversary Edition) - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: One of the real film classics
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a fan of 1940s black and white film noir you're in for a real treat with "The Third Man." This film's cinamatogaphy is incredibly beautiful, as are the camera angles, the lighting, and music sound track. Anton Karas provides the zither music for the film introduction and as edge of your seat accompaniment throughout the movie, which adds to the intensity of the story. The setting for the film is post-Second World War Vienna, with emphasis put on the black market profiteering going on in that time. Here, we find out that the film's villain, an American named Harry Lime, was making scads of money from his involvement in racketeeing in watered down penicillin. There was little enough of this drug to go around to treat the severely injured. Many babies died or were suffered permanent crippling and catastrophic illnesses after having this worthless medication administered to them.
Holly Martins, an American writer of pulp fiction/dime store novels, as played by well-cast actor Joseph Cotten, arrives in Vienna on the promise from his good friend, Harry Lime, that Lime would provide Martins with a job. Soon after Martins inquires about his friend, he is told that Lime was killed as the result of a hit and run car accident. The facts point to other conclusions. Martins meets Lime's girlfriend, Anna, as played by the beautiful Alida Valli, who has her own problems related to her status in allied occupied Vienna. Orson Welles is quite sinister as Harry Lime, while maintaining a certain amount of charm which enables him to retain a touch of undeserved sympathy. We are introduced to Orson Welles's character in a rather amusing and startling manner which adds to the film's noir appeal. Martin's loyalty to Lime can only go so far, and their relationship, as well as Lime's career, end very badly. The film's ending is very unsettling for all concerned, but this scintillating and beautifully photographed work of art, nevertheless proves to be, at least in my opinion, one of most suspenseful and satisfying post-war films ever made.
Summary of The Third Man (50th Anniversary Edition) - Criterion Collection
Orson Welles stars as Harry Lime, and Joseph Cotten plays his childhood friend, Holly Martins, in this all-time classic thriller scripted by Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed. Martins searches for Lime through the seedy underworld of postwar Vienna and gets caught up in a web of love, deception, racketeering, and murder. The Third Man's stunning cinematography, twisting plot, and unforgettable zither score are immortalized in Criterion's pristine special edition, following the 50th Anniversary theatrical re-release.The fractured Europe post-World War II is perfectly capturedin Carol Reed's masterpiece thriller, set in a Vienna still shell-shocked from battle. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an alcoholic pulp writer come to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But when Cotton first arrives in Vienna, Lime's funeral is under way. From Lime's girlfriend and an occupying British officer, Martins learns of allegations of Lime's involvement in racketeering, which Martins vows to clear from his friend's reputation. As he is drawn deeper into postwar intrigue, Martins finds layer under layer of deception, which he desperately tries to sort out. Welles's long-delayed entrance in the film has become one of the hallmarks of modern cinematography, and it is just one of dozens of cockeyed camera angles that seem to mirror the off-kilter postwar society. Cotten and Welles give career-making performances, and the Anton Karas zither theme will haunt you. --Anne Hurley
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Classic Films
North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $13.09
Price in other shops:
Shadow of a DoubtUniversal Studios; Release date: 2006-02-07; DVD
Best price: $12.08
Price in other shops:
The Birds (Collector's Edition)UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2000-03-28; DVD
Best price: $11.28
Price in other shops:
To Have and Have Not (Keepcase)BOGART,HUMPHREY; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
The Maltese FalconRelease date: 2000-02-15; DVD
Best price: $49.75
Dark Passage (Keepcase)BOGART,HUMPHREY; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $5.32
Price in other shops:
The Big SleepBOGART,HUMPHREY; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops:
Vertigo (Collector's Edition)Universal Studios; Release date: 1998-03-31; DVD
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
Now, Voyager (Snap case)Release date: 2001-11-06; DVD
Best price: $8.80
Price in other shops:
RebeccaRelease date: 2008-10-14; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Friends of Eddie CoyleImage Entertainment; Release date: 2009-05-19; DVD
Best price: $18.40
Price in other shops:
The 400 Blows - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 1998-03-31; DVD
Best price: $36.59
Price in other shops:
Homicide- Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2009-09-08; DVD
Best price: $24.36
Price in other shops:
Seven Samurai - 3 Disc Remastered Edition (Criterion Collection Spine # 2)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $29.75
Price in other shops:
![The Wages Of Fear - Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] Image](/images/The-Wages-Of-Fear-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray-B001PYD0KM-X.jpg)
The Wages Of Fear - Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2009-04-21; DVD
Best price: $21.94
Price in other shops:
![Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 [Region 2] Image](/images/Federico-Fellini-8-1-2-Region-2-B000059YU4-X.jpg)
Federico Fellini's 8 1/ 2 [Region 2]DVD
Best price: $48.94
![The Seventh Seal (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Image](/images/The-Seventh-Seal-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray-B001WLMOG4-X.jpg)
The Seventh Seal (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2009-06-16; DVD
Best price: $21.75
Price in other shops:
The Seventh Seal (Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2009-06-16; DVD
Best price: $18.02
Price in other shops:
Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition)UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops:
M - 2 Disc Special Edition - Criterion CollectionLORRE,PETER; Release date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $23.40
Price in other shops: