Skip to content
Eye Logo link to homepageEye Film Museum Logo, link to homepage
still The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)

The Third Man

Play trailer

Carol Reed / GB, 1949 / 105 min.

Post-war Vienna is a hornet’s nest of black marketeers and espionage. A man on the run, ominous shadows in black and white and a chase through the city’s sewers. The exemplary noir classic, starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton, now in a 4K restoration.

poster The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), a writer of pulp novels, travels to Vienna at the invitation of his old schoolfriend Harry Limes (Orson Welles). When he arrives, however, it appears Limes has had an accident and is about to be buried. A perplexed Martins investigates the mystery and digs his way through a hornet’s nest of black marketeers and espionage in Vienna on the eve of the Cold War.

The score by Anton Karas (‘The Harry Lime Theme’) is as remarkable as the film itself: never before was the zither used in film music. Reed’s masterpiece is regarded as one of the best British films of all times.

The film was extensively restored on the occasion of its seventieth anniversary in 2019 and can now be seen in a crisp 4K restoration.

Special screenings

Details

Persons under 6 years must be accompanied by an adultThis movie contains scenes of violence

Director

Carol Reed

Production year

1949

Country

GB

Original title

The Third Man

Length

105 min.

Language

English, German, Russian, French

Subtitles

NLD

Format

DCP

You have to accept cookies to be able to watch this.

still The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
still The Third Man (Carol Reed, GB 1949)
Planning on having a drink or a bite to eat? Book online for Eye Bar & Restaurant.
Share your love for film and become a member of the Eye Society.
NLEN
;

Current exhibition

  • 18 January — 1 June 2025

    Nuri Bilge Ceylan

    Inner Landscapes

Films, talks & events

Show everything

for anytime

in all languages

Sort by