Just wanted to offer this follow-up.
As you know I had written to Mr Peter Snell owner of CEO of British Lion
Film in the hope he might be able to help with the puzzle of the poster.
Although he did not respond directly to me he did kindly pass on my
email to Studio Canal to respond. For those who do not know, Studio
Canal actually have just restored The Third Man and it has (just) been
released as well as available to purchase from all the usual online
re-sellers; watch the (restored) trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yyDEDGlr0.
Mr. Massimo Moretti who is the UK Library Commercial Development Manager
for StudioCanal answered as follows [some edits]:
/"... Our company controls the rights to most of the historical British
Lion catalogue. It is a library with a fascinating history, but this is
history is also quite complicated. Please accept my apologies for the
generalizations, but, in essence://
//
//Studiocanal acquired the catalogue as part of the purchase of the
Lumiere Films catalogue in 1994-6. //
//
//Originally the British Lion assets were acquired by EMI Films around
1973. What makes it complicated is that British Lion acted both as a
financier and as a straightforward distributor and the rights situations
are sometimes complex. However, around 1949, British Lion was owned by
Sir Alexander Korda who used the studio facilities at Shepperton and the
distribution arm for his films produced under ‘London Films’. This is
where The Third Man comes into place. At the time The Selznick
Organization acquired North American distribution rights (the title was
spelled The 3rd Man and the poster is very different), while British
Lion distributed internationally."/
I also asked if it might be possible if he would know the international
re-release history for the film, to which he replied:
/"I am afraid our records on the International distribution arm are
pretty much non-existent, we end up relying on the BFI library and
imdb.com (which is far from reliable sometimes). It does not help that
when producing artwork British Lion often relied on National Screen
Services and they have also long gone.//"/
He also kindly (as I did ask), a couple of lo-res images of the
quads...thought you might like to see them...I'm assuming the US
(Selznick) one would have been part of the _*USA
1956/57*_*_re-releases_* (BTW - the US poster sucks ass). ;)
Here are the confirmations of those USA reissues
http://www.archive.org/stream/motionpicturedai78unse#page/n383/mode/2up
http://www.archive.org/stream/motionpicturedai80unse#page/n347/mode/2up/search/%22third+man%22+AND+%22reissue%22
That is all I have thus far, as you know I had written to someone I know
at BFI but as yet I have not heard back. Either way, I think the poster
on BIDLL is a special and rare one
<http://bidll.com/Listing/Details/420722> - good luck if you are bidding.
regards,
*David Rew
[mob] 0402 925 158*
bidll.com
for serious collectors
<https://www.facebook.com/bidll> Follow us <https://twitter.com/bidll>
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