This scene is ever so subtly channeled in Dune Chapter 2, btw.

best film off all time

Watched this many times, but just realised I missed a huge continuity error. As Martins is dropped off to wait for Anna, the jeep drives away.. Not one single leaf on the road. Cut back to Martins and the whole place is full of leafs! How I missed this I have no idea.

They had a man up in a tree slowly dropping leaves. It's kind of unnatural how the leaves drift down in front of the man.

Just an aside. Here's a nice rendition of "The Third Man" theme played on guitar by Evangelos Assimakopoulos: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gJylo8eizLzXcYk.html

If your story has a happy ending you haven’t finished the story

I know that a lot of people think Anna walking past Holly at the end is a sad ending, but I beg to differ. What sort of woman goes to the funeral of the man she loves, only to walk straight into the arms of another man half an hour later? Not the sort of woman you should have by your side. You'd never be able to trust her love or her loyalty. Holly may feel he's lost his love, but he's actually dodged a bullet. Just thought I'd add, Alida Valli later appeared in Les Yeux Sans Visage, and later still in Dario Argento's Suspiria and Inferno. Splendid actress!

This is the most impressive scene in the Movei. I never forget foeever.

Callaway's face at 1:28 suggests that he knows this bum is going to show up drunk at his flat the next time 2:30 rolls around....

Beautiful. Perfectly done. And always reminds me of this gem from another genre, but in a similar spirit: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eL2qgLl_3pa9p3k.html

referenced well in the long goodbye

Can you imagine if the match hadn't lit....cut....do it again!..Greatest ever ending to my fave film of all time. Perfection...timing, acting...just pure perfection.

Une fin magistrale ! Harry Lime est bien sûr un cynique et répugnant voyou mais il était l'ami de Martins et on ne trahit pas un ami, quoi qu'il ait fait. C'est pourquoi Anna passe devant Martins comme s'il n'existait plus pour elle. Sa trahison l'a rendu indigne d'un simple regard. Une scène digne de la tragédie grecque et du conflit d'Antigone : au-dessus des lois humaines qui veulent le châtiment des criminels, il y a les lois supra-humaines qui interdisent de trahir un ami.

My funeral music, when I go into the flames

Just caught this final scene on the TV, fantastic from when he gets out of the car 🤩

初めての海外旅行先が、ベルギーでした。街角の楽器店で、あの魅惑的なチターが飾られているではありませんか。買いました。ホテルに戻り、ドレミを弾いてみると、微妙に音がズレていました。弦を巻き戻してもダメ。勇を鼓して楽器店に戻り、「レ」の音がおかしいから何とかしてくれ、と。店主は終始しっかりとわたしの日本語に耳を傾けていました。やがて店主、奥から高価そうな装飾の、別のチターを取り出してきて、自ら第三の男を演奏し始めました。とろけるような名演奏。終わって、そのチターを、店主はわたしに差し出しました。わたしは英語も、フランス語も一切できません。この間のやり取りはすべて身振り手振りです。そのチターはわたしの異国での素晴らしい形見となりました

Im his autobiography, Joseph Cotten doesn't correctly remember this scene exactly as it happened. He says he was puzzled, wondering what Carol Reed was waiting for before calling "Cut" and finally threw his cigarette away in exasperation. But we can see that's not what happened Great scene. .

My favorite final shot of any movie in history. It made such an impact on a young Alan Parker that he pays homage to it in the scene of Billy walking away from the prison in Midnight Express.

I always like this ending, it matched the futile meaning of the whole movie, that people don't plan their lives so much as react and adjust to the circumstances they find themselves in. In other words we play with the hand we're dealt. I also noticed that the leaves falling onto the roadway don't seem to be falling from the trees in the foreground, so they must have had someone above the camera dropping them!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o954i6aatdbYcZ8.html

As a youngster I watched this movie with my dad. Despite being one of hundreds, it left a lasting impression I haven't felt duplicated in 65+ years since. I credit the haunting theme of "The Third Man." It's played so effectively on the zither, this closing scene conveys to the viewer the loneliness Anna feels in her walk - as well as the helplessness Martins has in his desire to aid her. This movie's plot, musical score, skillful acting and the camera angles of this closing scene are the sum of it's parts that create this Extraordinary Classic indeed !

Such perfection… the framing, the pacing, the music…. I cry every time she passes through… 😭…

I wish I could watch this for the first time again...this scene took my breath away.

Still remember the first time I watched this, when Martins said "One can't just leave", I silently screamed "of course you can". I thought this excellent movie was about to be ruined, but turns out it was setting me up for the best ending ever.

Absolutely brilliant. What a way to end a film. I keep watching ir from time to time. Devastating.

A simple shot, that means, death, life, hope e deception. Best ending scene ever.

Esta escena siempre me sobrecoge e impresiona cada vez que la veo ... Y la he visto cientos de veces ...

She embodies post-WWII European anomie. Very moving. Headed into uncertainty.

This if the best hauntingly devastating ending of any movie. The nostalgic chaotic chords of Anton Karas drive this post-WWII European film noir to its sad poetic ending. And The Third Man lives on forever with its meaning and romance still haunting us to this day. Beautiful!

Greatest movie ending scene of all time.

Great ending. There is a woman out there for Holly, one assumes, but Anna is not that woman.

The stunning Valli, with whom every man in the film falls in love, walks down the lane of trees with no leaves accompanied by the zither music of the great Anton Karas. This is my favorite film.

Its all about the atmosphere..the atmosphere completes the film.

I heard that neither Cotton nor Valli knew what was going on when the scene was filmed. Cotton had no idea that Aldi had been told to walk past him. I always thought this was a great Graham Greene moment with devotion and faith edging out earthly compromise but in fact his original ending was a happy one and Reed changed it. Greene later agreed with him.

They blocked Hunter's sweetheart plea dill!? That's it! It's more a punch line than anything. They're ticked off and all up in their panties cause they only found the one clip of Hunter getting a BJ. It's like watching a spoof segment of SNL except pitifully, they're dead serious.

A very enigmatic ending. In keeping with the film as a whole.

I don't think Joseph Cotten had any sense of what he was doing in this weird movie, and then it ends up being one of the most iconic roles ever. I think he just thought he was doing a low budget film job and kind of phoned it in, which is beautiful in its own way. Always mesmerized by how this all came together. Kind of a punk rock aesthetic long before anyone had a label for that.

Hollywood no longer makes movies with this kind of ending. And neither the ending like Casablanca or the Roman Holiday.

The officer who drove off knew what it was all about. Marvelous ending of this grand film. We're going to pour ourselves another Scotch, listen to the zither theme, and shed a tear.

The great Trevor Howard…..

I can't help but contrast this ending with the Casablanca movie ending . Both great movie endings, one of great hope the other of despair .

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) remains true to his character until the end. He's a complete fool. One of the best endings in movie history.

Seriously, what did he expect?

Shame one cannot see the whole film on youtube nice

I identify totally with Holly...Been there , had the t-shirt - the more you do for the woman you love , the worse she treats you....!

That was the first movie my grandpa watched in a cinema after he had come home from a POW camp in 1948. He told me of this movie all his life long whenever I met him. And when he heard Anton Karas' cither on the radio there was silence in the room immediately, the family sat down without anyone telling them, and they listened attentively to the beautiful tune without saying a single word.

this IS one of the best ending in all of cinema. the cherry on top for such a great film

This story like to Alain Robbe Gurillet's story stracture

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hrp7eMyCra7XpZ8.html

You can't just leave.