The Third Man

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “Of all the movies I have seen, this one most completely embodies the romance of going to the movies.”

  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times · 100

• “Throughout the film the sense of Vienna as a frazzled echo of its glorious past is underpinned by Reed's greatest trouvaille – the discovery of Anton Karas's zither melodies, used as the only musical accompaniment. Half-jaunty, half-melancholic, they epitomise, like the film itself, a world gone sadly to seed.”

  Alan Stanbrook, The Telegraph · 100

• “This will haunt you. The style, the plot, the character and of course ...that tune...”

  William Thomas, Empire · 100

• “A triumph of disparate tones, colors and intentions. Like many, I have loved this thriller of conscience and betrayal most of my moviegoing life...Its brand of romantic fatalism is particularly seductive to teenage males, I think, and those who never fully recover from that moviegoing state of being.”

  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune · 100

• “Mr. Reed has brilliantly packaged the whole bad of his cinematic tricks, his whole range of inventive genius for making the camera expound. His eminent gifts for compressing a wealth of suggestion in single shots, for building up agonized tension and popping surprises are fully exercised. His devilishly mischievous humor also runs lightly through the film, touching the darker depressions with little glints of the gay or macabre. [3 Feb 1950, p.29]”

  Bosley Crowther, The New York Times · 100