The Third Man (1949) - An incredible film

The impeccable direction of Carol Reed; breath-taking zither scores of Anoton Karas; the surpassing performances of Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles; and Graham Greene's sharp dialogues, made The Third Man to be one of the best of the best British films of all-time.

An American pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins (Jospeh Cotten) comes to the post-war Vienna which is divided into four separate zones, each governed by one of the victorious Allies, and a jointly-administered international zone to meet his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who promises him with a job. After coming to Vienna he discovers that Lime is recently hit by a lorry that ran over him.

Martins goes to the cemetry to attend his friend's funeral and meets two British Army Royal Military Policemen: Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), a fan of Martins's books, and his superior, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard). After the services, Martins accepts an invitation to speak to the members of a local book club, delaying his departure to do so. He is contacted by a friend of Lime's, Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch), who wants to talk about Lime's death. Kurtz relates that he and Popescu (Siegfried Breuer), another friend of Lime's, had picked Lime up after the accident and brought him over to the side of the street before dying.

Martins later meets Anna (Valli), Lime's girlfriend in a theatre. In one of the succeeding scenes, Martins meets Anna in Lime's apartment. The porter of Lime's apartment tells Martins that Lime was brought to the side of the street not just by two people, but by indeed, three. Martins pressures the porter to give some more information about the third man. But the porter puts himself up as if he does not remember the third man and in turn, refuses to give information.

The a tinge of doubt about Lime's death, Martins meets Lime's personal physician, Dr. Winkel to know more about the third man whereas, Winkel reassures that there were only two people at the accident spot. Unconvinced Martins, leaves the place.

In one of the later scenes, Martins discerns a man watching from a dark doorway across the darkened square. A lighted window briefly illuminates the man's face, revealing him to be Harry Lime. Probing into the suscpicious death of Lime, Calloway orders for a exhume. In the cemetry, Martins is surprised to see the corpse of Joseph Harbin, an orderly in a military hospital, buried in his place.

Martins suspects Lime's social conduct and would come to know that Harry was a crook and a creep, who sold watered down penicillan in the Black Market.

Later, Martins agrees to help Calloway to ensnare Lime, negotiating Anna's save conduct to Vienna. In an amazing chasing scene in the central sewer system, Lime is shot dead by Martins. The film ends after the burial of Lime takes place. In the aftermath, Martins attends Lime's second funeral. He waits by the roadside to speak with Anna, but she walks past without looking at him.

With all the credible features, the film still gains ground even after several years of its release.
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