Search - The Third Man, Vol. 1 on DVD

Entertaining series deserves better

Robert Huggins | Suburban Philadelphia, PA United States | 06/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's probably best to disassociate Carol Reed's classic 1949 film "The Third Man" from this late Fifties/early Sixties syndicated television series of the same name that starred Michael Rennie as Harry Lime, the role originated by Orson Welles in the film. The tone and texture of the series is much lighter than the film and the basic premise, that Harry Lime is a flawed man who tries to right the wrongs of the world, is far removed from the Lime character of the film. Anton Karas' memorable theme music is the only real carryover from the film. That said, the series is enjoyable on its own terms and those who enjoy the Roger Moore series "The Saint" will see more obvious comparisons with that series than with the film. Jonathan Harris, prior to his role as "Dr. Zachary Smith" in "Lost in Space" appears in some of the episodes as Lime's assistant Brad Webster.

This is a rare series to see and hasn't been broadcast in decades but, unfortunately, this 4-episode DVD doesn't do the show much justice. The source material used for this release are unrestored syndication prints, so while they are certainly watchable, you'll encounter the occasional splice and audio dropout, and there are film speckles from time to time. The DVD says that this is "Volume 1," but this DVD has been available since 2004 and there's never been any follow-up release to date. One wishes for an official studio release of this series but, given its age and the fact that it was filmed in black & white, that's probably unrealistic.
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