The fractured state of Europe after World War II was perfectly captured in Carol Reed's thriller The Third Man. Set in Vienna and with Orson Welles starring unforgettably as the mysterious Harry Lime, it showcased some of Graham Greene's finest screenwriting.

With unlimited access to the original movie, Arena explores the filmmaking artistry, moral world and furious infighting behind the film.

 Interview: Hear Greene talk to the BBC in 1969

This new documentary revisits the original locations to reveal the drama behind the scenes, including the battles between producers Alexander Korda and David O Selznick as well as those of Selznick and Greene. It reveals Welles's shenanigans as he became as elusive as Harry Lime himself in an attempt to up his fee and how actor Trevor Howard impersonated the British commander in Austria. It tells the incredible story of the film's music: how Anton Karas, a little-known zither player from cafés in the Vienna Woods, achieved pop stardom all over the world.

Arena explores Reed's supreme imagination and cool mastery of the medium, and Vienna itself - blitzed, partitioned into four zones, and a nest of spies and racketeers.

 Quiz: How much do you know about Graham Greene?

Although the story may be a work of fiction, for many, The Third Man is the best documentary ever made about post-war Europe. Almost all of the film's components are true: there really was a penicillin racket which killed many Austrian children and the Soviets actually did allow kidnappings of Eastern bloc refugees.

Using a new technique, the original film is projected onto the very walls and spaces where it was filmed - the ruins, the doorways, the squares and the sewers of Vienna, and the cemetery where the grave allegedly given to Harry Lime is in reality occupied by the body of Herman Grun - German for Greene.