The Third Man
An American pulp novelist in post‑war Vienna hunts the truth behind his missing friend’s alleged fatal accident, only to uncover a deadly web of Cold War intrigue that forces him to choose between survival and exposing the conspiracy.
“Hunted by men ... Sought by WOMEN!”
Synopsis
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood friend Harry Lime, only to discover that he has died. Martins becomes convinced of a conspiracy after learning about a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, encounters resistance from British officer Major Calloway, and becomes deeply involved with Harry's grieving lover, Anna.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 26
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Oswald HafenrichterShot by Robert Krasker
Box Office
1949 · Box office
Grossed $1.2M worldwide
Worldwide gross
$1.2M
Re-release box office
- 201513 theaters
- $705K($984K today)
Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation
Full synopsis
Also known as
- Der dritte Mannde
- El tercer hombrees
- Le Troisième Hommefr
- Il terzo uomoit
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Cast & Crew
26 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Orson Welles
as Harry Lime
Joseph Cotten
as Holly Martins
Alida Valli
as Anna Schmidt
Trevor Howard
as Maj. Calloway
Paul Horbiger
as Karl
Ernst Deutsch
as Baron Kurtz
Erich Ponto
as Dr. Winkel
Siegfried Breuer
as Popescu
Hedwig Bleibtreu
as Anna's Landlady
Bernard Lee
as Sgt. Paine
Wilfrid Hyde White
as Crabbin
Nelly Arno
as Kurtz's Mother
Supporting cast
6Directors
1Writers
4Producers
3Other crew
3Parents Guide
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