1st Edition Hardback. The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene Publisher Heinemann. Frequently Voted As One of The Greatest Films of All Time.

Publication date: January 1, 1950 Hardback with original dustjacket, unclipped, priced 6 shillings, 188 pages, overall in super condition, original cloth binding {under the dust-jacket} is near mint. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1950. Original presentation recipient's name and date on the inner first leaf

Complete with a loose newspaper clipping in the book {likely from the 1960's} detailing the burial of the actual "Third Man" Nikolaus Borrisov aka Benno Blum. And, as a smuggler of cigarettes and kidnapper of Russian born fleeing emigre's, returned into the hands of Russian Intelligence over the Austro Hungarian border, Borrisov was earning an incredible sum of around £2,500,000 per year from his enterprise of smuggling and kidnapping from 1947 to 1950. This fantastic sum today would likely be, the equivalent, of over one billion pounds a year.

First hardcover edition, and the first time Greene's novelization of his famous screenplay saw print. "Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception, and murder." Basis for the Oscar-winning 1949 film directed by Carol Reed, starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten.

The Third Man is a 1949 British-American film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotton as Holly Martins, Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway. Set in post-World War II Allied-occupied Vienna, the film centres on American writer Holly Martins, who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime, only to learn that he has died. Martins stays in Vienna to investigate Lime's death, becoming infatuated with Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt.

The use of black-and-white German expressionist-influenced cinematography by Robert Krasker, with its harsh lighting and Dutch angles, is a major feature of The Third Man. Combined with the use of ruined locations in Vienna, the style evokes exhaustion and cynicism at the start of the Cold War.

Greene wrote a novella as a treatment for the screenplay. Composer Anton Karas' title composition "The Third Man Theme" topped the international music charts in 1950, bringing international fame to the previously unknown performer. The Third Man is considered one of the greatest films of all time, celebrated for its acting, musical score, and atmospheric cinematography.

In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British film of all time. In 2011, a poll for Time Out ranked it the second-best British film ever

Henry Graham Greene OM CH (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century, and one of the The Lanes Armoury's, partner's, father's, drinking companions when he was in Brighton and imbibing in the Cricketer's Inn, Brighton's 500 year old oldest pub, and one of our neighbours here in The Lanes.

Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. The Power and the Glory won the 1941 Hawthornden Prize and The Heart of the Matter won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black. Greene was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. Several of his stories have been filmed, some more than once, and he collaborated with filmmaker Carol Reed on The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).

Presented to Richard Whittington-Egan who was a British writer and criminologist in 1950, the author of Liverpool Colonnade and Liverpool Roundabout, two colourful chronicles of Liverpool's historical characters, crimes and mysteries. And was considered in his day to the greatest living authority on Jack the Ripper.

First edition. The Third Man was written in eight weeks as "the screen treatment that Greene created as a first step in the production of the film version, which appeared in 1949 and which won first prize at the Cannes film festival" (ODNB). This is the first appearance of the story as a novel.

The Fallen Idol was based on Greene's 1935 short story "The Basement Room", which was adapted into the Oscar nominated film in 1948.

Original black boards, spine lettered in perfect silver, light brown endpapers. With dust jacket unclipped. named to presented original author owner dated 20th July 1950

Code: 25961