Retrospective Film Review

The Third Man (1949) • 75 Years Later — humanity’s darkest moment in Britain’s best film

A pulp novelist travels to shadowy, post-war Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend…

Along the dark streets of Vienna, evil men cast long shadows. Friends are revealed to be fragmentary, untrustworthy things, little more than vague silhouettes or a hazy memory of a picture seen once long ago. And love has its brains dashed against the pavement, left to bleed out into the underground sewers.

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) has just arrived in Austria. He’s excited to meet his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), but there’s just one problem: he’s dead. Shocked by the news that his lifelong friend was killed in a car accident, Holly begins to suspect there’s something dubious about the witnesses’ stories. Deciding to stay in Vienna and investigate, Holly discovers a mystery that wasn’t supposed to be discovered…

The Third Man is argued to be the best British film ever made. There’s quite a lot…