- The UK version features introductory voice-over by the director Carol Reed; in the US version Joseph Cotten provides the voice-over, as his character Holly Martins. The UK version runs 104 minutes, versus the US version at 93 minutes, which was cut by producer David O. Selznick to give the film a tighter pace. Both versions have been released on video in the U.S., but as of today the most common is the longer British cut. A video comparison between the narrations appears on the U.S. Criterion Collection DVD.
- The film was dubbed in German for the first time in 1949 with Wolfgang Lukschy for Joseph Cotten and Friedrich Joloff for Orson Welles. Additionally, all German speaking actors dubbed themselves. In 1963 the film was redubbed (presumably for legal reasons) by Atlas Film (with Horst Niendorf for Cotten and Werner Peters for Welles). This version also replaces the opening credits.
- When the film was initially distributed in America, David O. Selznick replaced the narration at the beginning (a necessity to explain the very unusual status of Vienna in the aftermath of World War II, when the film was set), originally done by Carol Reed himself, with a narration read by Joseph Cotten, in character as Holly Martins. Nearly eleven minutes of film was cut out in Selznick's version, including all references in the original cut to Cotten's Holly Martins being an implied alcoholic and anything else that portrayed him as a less than heroic figure.
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