The Third Man

Postwar Noir Pinnacle: Set in the rubble of four-power-occupied Vienna, The Third Man follows American pulp novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) investigating the apparent death of his black-marketeer friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Collaborative Alchemy: Widely hailed by BFI and Criterion as the greatest British thriller of the postwar era, fusing Greene's moral cynicism, Reed's visual precision, Robert Krasker's chiaroscuro, and Anton Karas's zither. Commissioning (January 1948): Sir Alexander Korda commissioned novelist Graham Greene to write an original postwar continental story. UK vs. US Release Split (1949–1950): Opened in London on September 2, 1949; after a bitter credits dispute between Korda and Selznick, an 11-minute-shortened American cut opened at New York's Victoria Theater on February 2, 1950.