The Third Man (1 Viewer)

[Bob Hug]

Although bearing very little resemblence to the classic 1949 movie of the same name, this late 1950s/early 1960s series is entertaining in its own right and reminds me a bit of "The Saint." Michael Rennie portrays Harry Lime and Jonathan Harris (pre-"The Bill Dana Show" and "Lost in Space") is Brad Webster, Lime's assistant. The Timeless Media Group has just released a 2-DVD set of 10 episodes; link:

http://www.timelessmusic.com/DVDs/thethirdman.html

Critics Choice Video previously released a volume of four episodes; link:

http://www.ccvideo.com/item.cfm?itemid=CCD001042

This show hasn't aired in a long time so the new set is very welcome, and it doesn't duplicate any of the episodes on the Critics Choice release.

 

[michael_ks]

I've always been curious about this series since I'm a fan of both Rennie and Harris. Any idea what we can expect for image quality on the 'Timeless Media Group' release? Will you inform us if you purchase (along with the Robert Shaw "Bucanneer" series)?

 

[Jeff#]

It should be noted that The Third Man TV series is based more on the early 1950s radio series than the feature film. Both the movie and the radio versions of The Third Man starred Orson Welles, his role of Harry Lime clearly expanded for the airwaves.

Here is a small sampling of less than 10 episodes of The Third Man series in Mp3 file format, with a new one added every Friday: www.otrfan.com/otr/series/harrylime.html

 

[Bob Hug]

Michael, I won't be getting this release of "The Third Man" right away (probably will pick it up from Deep Discount when they offer it; they don't have it yet). I do have the Critics Choice release and it's pretty much a run-of-the mill public domain release that uses worn syndication prints . . . certainly watchable enough, but no great shakes in the audio/visual department. I suspect the Timeless release will be along the same lines and I'll pick it up eventually because I seriously doubt that "The Third Man" series will ever get an official release for all of the usual reasons . . . too old, a forgotten series, black & white, etc., etc.

As for "The Buccaneers," see the thread for that series. I've supplied my thoughts on Mill Creek's release there. I can recommend it, though with certain caveats.

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

I really enjoyed the Timeless release of this series and I wondered if anyone knew if there was any chance of them releasing any more episodes of this series? Thanks.

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

Timeless have released some series with just a few episodes and have then released complete seasons of these shows i.e. Checkmate. I wonder if anyone knows if all the episodes of The Third Man are still out there and if so is a fuller release a possibility sometime soon? Many thanks.

 

[Charles Smith]

I would go for that if/when it appears.