Movies

Category: Film-Noir
All Genres: Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Release Year: 1949
Country: UK
Runtime: 104
Rating: 6.4 (0)
Languages: English, German, Russian
Director: Carol Reed
Sound: Mono
Taglines:

Writing by: Graham Greene – (story) and
Alexander Korda – (story) uncredited
Graham Greene – (screenplay)
Carol Reed – uncredited and
Orson Welles – uncredited

Produced by: Hugh Perceval – associate producer
Carol Reed – producer
Alexander Korda – producer (uncredited)
David O. Selznick – producer (uncredited)

Cast: Joseph Cotten – Holly Martins
Alida Valli – Anna Schmidt (as Valli)
Orson Welles – Harry Lime
Trevor Howard – Major Calloway
Bernard Lee – Sergeant Paine
Paul Hörbiger – Harrys Porter (as Paul Hoerbiger)
Ernst Deutsch – Baron Kurtz
Siegfried Breuer – Popescu
Erich Ponto – Dr. Winkel
Wilfrid Hyde-White – Crabbin
Hedwig Bleibtreu – Annas Old Landlady

Music: Anton Karas
Official Website: Visit Website


Plot Outline: Arriving in Vienna, Holly Martins learns that his friend Harry Lime, who has invited him, recently died in a car accident.
Plot: An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Limes friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.

Crazy Credits: We know about 2 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
The main credits at the end of the picture show the persons face alongside his or her name. Even Michael Caine is pictured, alongside Bill Naughtons credit.

Goofs: We know about 12 goofs. Here comes one of them:
Continuity: The dog and the book briefly change between Kurtz two hands when he is being shown where Lime was hit by a truck.

Trivia: There are 28 entries in the trivia list – like these:

• Once he finally arrived in Vienna, Orson Welles refused to film various scenes in the sewers. Due to his protests, various sets replicating the Vienna sewers had to be constructed by Alexander Korda on sound-stages back in England.
• Orson Welles evaded production assistants and assistant director Guy Hamilton while traveling in Europe when he was supposed to be on location filming in Vienna. During Welles unexpected absence, Carol Reed had to film around him, getting numerous spectacular shots in the sewers seen in the finished film. Numerous body doubles for Welles were used, included Hamilton, who was made to wear an over-sized hat and padded coat to approximate Welless larger size. Reed himself doubled for Welless hands when they reach through the sewer grade. When Welles finally arrived, he was 2 weeks late.
• This was meant to be the first of a series of collaborations between mega-producers David O. Selznick and Alexander Korda. However, as the production grew difficult, they decided to take it one film at a time. Ironically, due to the success of the film, since both producers were at each others throats for the credit for the film, they never collaborated again.