The Third Man (PG)

★★★★★ An iconic film noir that's still fresh despite being familiar. ~ BBC.

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Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of one of the masterpieces of cinema – The Third Man comes to UK cinemas for the first time ever on 4K UHD.

In 1949, an American writer of westerns, Holly Martins, travels to post-war Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime. On arrival, he learns that his friend has been killed in a street accident. 

What’s more, when he meets Calloway, the city’s chief of British Military Police, he is informed that Lime was in fact a black marketer and a wanted man. Holly sets out to prove his mysterious friend’s innocence, but is Harry really dead? 

Directed by Carol Reed from an original script by acclaimed novelist Graham Greene, The Third Man is one of the greatest British films ever made, and is beloved by filmmakers the world over – from Martin Scorsese to Ben Wheatley. 

Oscar-winning cinematography showcasing the shadowy underbelly of a bombed-out Vienna, an endlessly quotable performance by Orson Welles and an iconic soundtrack from zither player Anton Karas – a Viennese busker plucked from obscurity by Reed – combine to make one of the most memorable thrillers of all time. 

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★★★★★ Few films more effectively capture the crumbling infrastructure and opportunistic lawlessness of postwar Europe. And none better translate the snaking treachery of Graham Greene's stories and his worlds of cynical expats and casual betrayal. ~ The Times.

★★★★★ Set in postwar occupied Vienna, the plot is a corker, littered with memorable moments and played to perfection by an unforgettable cast that's led with distinction by Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ Blustering, conceited, charming – Welles is still spellbinding in Carol Reed’s compelling parable of guilt, 70 years on. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ This is a film which does away with such cretinous inanity as offering up goodies and baddies, instead presenting its cast of characters as doing things which they believe to be good, but are not seen as such through the eyes of observers. ~ Little White Lies.

★★★★★ Seventy years on such sombreness seems timely, as does Harry Lime, Welles's deliciously elusive antihero. ~ The Times.