Disc Reviews

The Third Man 4K Review

3rd Jul 2015

Still heralded as one of Britain’s best films – The Third Man deservingly get’s the 4K restoration treatment in this new release for theatrical/home entertainment.

A war time thriller set in Vienna. Joseph Cotton plays a down on his luck writer, Holly Martins, summoned to Vienna with the promise of work from his best friend, Harry Lime, only to discover that Lime is dead (under mysterious circumstances). With the British forces showing an interest in the death, Limes own girlfriend and various shady figures telling various tales of what happened; Holly starts his own investigation but doesn’t like what he finds.

It’s common knowledge that Orson Welles, in three separate scenes, quite simply steals the film. One of these scenes he does simply by standing in a doorway, speechless and mugging at Joseph Cotton on the otherwise of a street. The climax of the film is all about his character as we follow him down into the sewers that he uses to navigate the city. But the central scene with Welles as he talks to Cotton’s character on the ferris wheel is an unmistakable classic scene in cinema history. Welles may have less screen time that Judi Dench in Shakespeare In love, but each second is gold.

Sadly it does serve to diminish the role of Cotton, who ends up playing second fiddle and quite frankly, second best. But the film is no less engaging as Carol Reed’s famous canted angle direction is second to none.

The extras are plentiful. There is a lot of carry -over from the last release of the film which includes a commentary, a feature length documentary and various shorter featurettes on aspects of the film and its influence on today’s filmmakers. There are however a few new additions for this release. But what makes this edition stand out is the 4K remaster.

Having seen the previous disc release of The Third Man we had something to compare to, and it is simply shocking how long the film has gone without a patch job. The film has been cured of cracks, cuts, dirt and anything else that didn’t belong on the film in the first place. This new restoration is covered in detail on one of the extras. And it is made clear that the primary focus was on cleaning the image. It is also made as clear that the restoration job was not focusing on any of the grain that may bother some more modern users looking for the sharpest image possible with the smoothest surfaces. Watching this new film is simply a cleaner film, but there is going to me an awful lot of noise going on if you are focusing on backgrounds and plain surfaces within the mise-en-scene.

The best release going for The Third Man, and one worth picking up at the shops, but also seeing on the big screen.