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    The Third Man
    The Third Man
    The Third Man
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Third Man

    Written by Graham Greene

    Narrated by Kelsey Grammer, John Mahoney and Full Cast

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Somewhere in shadowy post-war Vienna, where everyone has something to sell on the black market, lurks the third man who witnessed the murder of Harry Lime. Novelist Holly Martins is haunted by the death of his friend. His search for the killer makes electrifying drama, in this witty and sophisticated audio adaptation of the Graham Greene classic.

    An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Ian Abercrombie, Rosalind Ayres, Ethan Glazer, Kelsey Grammer, John Mahoney, Wolf Muser, Barry Philips, Andreas Renell, Bettina Spier, Slav Troyan, John Vickery, Tom Virtue and Nobert Weisser.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherL.A. Theatre Works
    Release dateAug 15, 2006
    ISBN9781580815246
    The Third Man
    Author

    Graham Greene

    Graham Greene (1904–1991) is recognized as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, achieving both literary acclaim and popular success. His best known works include Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, and The Power and the Glory. After leaving Oxford, Greene first pursued a career in journalism before dedicating himself full-time to writing with his first big success, Stamboul Train. He became involved in screenwriting and wrote adaptations for the cinema as well as original screenplays, the most successful being The Third Man. Religious, moral, and political themes are at the root of much of his work, and throughout his life he traveled to some of the wildest and most volatile parts of the world, which provided settings for his fiction. Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour.  

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    Reviews for The Third Man

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Not a book really, but a story built around a screenplay. I understand the entire idea was sketched in one sentence upon a cocktail napkin. One of my favorite movies.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Entertaining dramatisation of a classic! Really enjoyed this. Well worth sitting there and just soaking it in. I’m going to look at some more programs like this
    • 4/5
      The Third Man takes place in Vienna during the dark days immediately after World War II when the city was divided into four occupation zones by the Allied powers. Rollo Martins, an English writer of American westerns, has arrived at the invitation of his friend Harry Lime, only to find that Lime has been killed in an auto accident. When the police tell Martins that Lime was also involved in some black market activity, Martins refuses to believe this and sets out to exonerate his friend. What he finds, however, is a dark secret surrounded by multiple layers of deception.The novel is narrated in first person by Colonel Calloway, the chief of British Military Police in Vienna. Calloway, who admits that he is wrong in some assumptions, relates conversations with Martins, whom he doesn't entirely believe, who, in turn, is interviewing Lime's friends and witnesses whose statements are contradictory. These shifting sands of uncertainty not only make for a suspenseful novel, but reflect as well the suspicious and treacherous atmosphere of the early Cold War.For comic relief, Greene has Martins, who writes under the pen name Buck Dexter, confused with a highbrow English novelist named Benjamin Dexter. In an hilarious episode, Martins puts some literary snobs down a peg just as Graham Greene probably wanted to confound some of his critics.The Third Man is not a tale of deep moral and religious conflict as were several of Greene's earlier novels. (It was actually written as a "film treatment," with no intent originally on the author's part that it be published at all.) But one doesn't have to look too hard to find some typical religious symbolism amidst the vivid imagery of this novel. This is a very enjoyable short novel that is a step above simple entertainment.
    • 4/5
      Classic Greene, this should qualify as one of the best books written after the movie script. Oh, and the movie introduced me to the zither!
    • 2/5
      The book was good enough, but I was spoiled by having seen the movie first, the movie may be the best I have ever seen.
    • 4/5
      One of the greatest movie quotes of all times comes from “The Third Man” – “…In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” In addition, the movie contains one of the greatest uses of a zither in a theme song. (Okay, that one is a pretty low bar.)Unfortunately, neither of these is contained in this book. Oh well, we must all try to forge ahead somehow. And this book makes that forging ahead an easy thing to do. It is a fast, entertaining read which tells the story of Rollo Martins’ arrival in post-war Vienna to visit his friend Harry Lime who, when Rollo arrives, is dead. There follows the tale of Rollo striving to solve the murder local authorities have declared an accident.If you have seen the movie, then you have seen part of the book. But only part of it. This is actually a book that was never meant to be a book. In fact, as Graham Greene describes it, the story is really just a treatment meant to be turned into a movie. So you will see differences. (For example, no cuckoo clock quote.) But that should not be a deterrent. I am not normally a reader of “thrillers” (or whatever genre this book might be considered), so I cannot expound on the relative merit of this book to others of its kind. But I can expound on the fact that this is a good story you will most likely enjoy.
    • 3/5
      I've never seen the film and knew nothing of the story so had the nice position of reading this famous story tabula rasa. My impression is of a nice genre story, sort of what you'd expect from a typical noir from the 30s or 40s. I'm sure the film is better since it shows bombed out Vienna, smartly dressed men and women, old nightclubs from a former age, etc.. the book only hints at. The plot itself is somewhat predictable after you realize there is only one way for the story to go, the beginning is the best when there is still mystery. This is also my first Greene fiction, I'm glad to have read something finally, it's a short introduction.
    • 3/5
      I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this book. I am not usually into spy stories, but the plot of this screenplay was both intriguing and enjoyable. I especially like that the author points out the differences between the original screenplay and that used for the film. This is one spy movie I would very much like to see.
    • 5/5
      This is great. Its a somewhat faithful rendition to the movie, but that's a good thing because there's not much about the movie that can be improved.
    • 3/5
      This was pretty good.One thing that is interesting about this book and others of its genre (like Chandler’s Marlowe series) is the total lack of swearing. There is sex in this book and crime and violence, but they all seem to be somehow more deliberate and more serious because of how they are portrayed. It’s not violence for its sake or sex for its own sake. They’re included because they’re vital to the plot. The witness, who is killed because he told Martins that he saw a third man, is killed because he could damage the plot. Its more interesting that way and the whole story seems more serious because of it.