Ive never seen Citizen Kane, but it has to be better than this boring movie. The photography is great, but thats about it. Its a complicated mess of a film.

They're both great movies but the Third Man is definitely more entertaining and more re-watchable.

So basically what you are saying is that "Greatest" movies lists are irrelevant and one should look for most enjoyable ones instead.
The spirit of abysmal despair

For me, this is just about the greatest movie ever made, with "On the Waterfront" and "Citizen Kane" right alongside it.

Im watching The Third Man right now and I was just thinking the same thing. For me, its in a class of its own.
Goodnight, good luck and may your God go with you

Welles didn't direct
The Third Man
. He acted in it, and wrote some additional dialog. But he wasn't who layered nuances into
The Third Man
; that would would be Carol Reed and Graham Green.
As for
Citizen Kane
, it's worth noting that the lists that have
Kane
at (or near) the top are usually ranking the "
greatest
movies", not the "best" or "most enjoyable". Those are different things. When you start talking about "greatness", you start having to give movies credit for such things as how innovative a movie is and how influential a movie was on all that came after it. The AFI's "100 Years, 100 Movies" ballot form and instructions are posted on their web site (or, at least, they used to be; I haven't gone looking for that in quite a while now). Those AFI instructions to their voters explicitly told them that those things mattered and were to be taken into account.
I, too, am far more prone to re-watching
The Third Man
than
Citizen Kane
. However, I have absolutely no problem with
Kane
being ranked at the top of "greatest movies" lists.

Citizen Kane is one of the Top 10 over-rated films in Hollywood history. Not a bad film, just not worth the lofty position it has been given.
The Third Man, by contrast, is (IMO) easily Welles' best work. It is indeed one that only gets better with each viewing. There are so many subtle nuances that Welles hid in the film that you don't grasp the first time. Or the second.
Remember When Movies Did Not Have To Be Politically Correct?

Third Man is more exciting, and the way it's filmed gets better every time I watch it.

I agree. The Third Man is my favorite film.

I totally agree. CK is a vastly overhyped movie and I was bored out of my wits. I cant say if Third Man is the greatest movie ever made but it is certainly better than CK.

Agree with enjoying rewatching The Third Man more. Citizen Kane is a great a film, but once you have seen it enough times, you can wait awhile to watch it again. At this point I rewatch Kane maybe once every year or two. While with TTM, I can pop that bad boy in any time.
I think there are multiple reasons for this being the case.
First, the characters.
Are there any main characters in TTM you root against?
Martins is that perfect down on his luck hero, who wants to be self centered but just can't help himself from caring about others.
Calloway is a good guy that just wants to catch a criminal, he is nice to Martins and even goes out of his way to help Anna.
Anna a refugee who fell in love with the wrong man, maybe her love sways her moral compass a bit, but what love doesn't?
Then there is Lime, which IMO is the greatest anti-villain of all time. He is greedy and doesn't care about the lives he has taken. But we aren't really shown this side of him, we are shown him as this friendly, funny, charming man. Even when he talks about his crimes, he gives this amazing justification in a humorous manor. They make it so you feel bad when he doesn't get away in the sewers.
While with Citizen Kane is there anyone you really root for?
Kane is a great anti-hero character and everyone around him is greedy. Which makes the rosebud reveal even more poignant. But still you don't like any of the people. Maybe Leland but still he backstabs Kane, rightfully so or not, it just doesn't make the viewer like him much.
Second, the type of story and the placement of the "twist".
Kane is a (sort of) fictitious bio-pic that all hinges on the twist at the end of the film. Once you know the twist you know the twist, the first time you watch it the reveal is amazing. I'm not saying that the movie isn't still good for a rewatch. But the people who didn't know the twist before they saw it the first time enjoy the film much more than those that I met that knew the twist before their first viewing. The film jumps around as Kane gets older, which is what is needed for the movie.
While with TTM, you get a "straight line" (for lack of a better term) story, a little bit of mystery in the beginning, a love story that can never be, and with a noir-esk feel. The "twist" is in the middle and the film doesn't really hinge on it much, knowing the "twist" doesn't ruin the film for first time viewers.
Third, the directing.
Both are beyond quality in their own right. Two of the best directed movies (IMO) not only in their era but of all time. CK's lightening is far and away superior, it has some quality shots and camera angles. But Carol Reed was just a master of the single shot, it is almost rude to compare Wells' debut (for full length films) to Reed who had been mastering the craft for almost 15 years at this point. Reed is a pure photographer. Apart from the obvious well know shots of the fingers coming out of the manhole or the final shot (which is just perfection), there are so many other great shots including the one with Martins and Anna in that coffee shop at the train station, just amazing.
Fourth, the music.
There are some people who hate and some that love the music in TTM. I personally love the music, but can admit some of the music editing and timing was off. The thing about it though, love or hate it, the music stands out in TTM. Which outside of the song "There is a Man", can't be said about CK.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I've been without cable connections for over six months a self-imposed test. During that time, I satisfied my video addiction with a VHS collection of about 60 tapes. I went through the whole lot at least twice. Of those viewings, two movies rose to the top of my hit parade, The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon. Of the two, TTM is the one I can still watch again and again. While Orson Welles is certainly a lynchpin of the film, it is equally carried by the full cast, the photography and Vienna itself.
Cable will be re-installed later today the test failed but I'll get in at least another viewing of TTM beforehand.

In my humble opinion, The Third Man is the movie they were really thinking of when "they," whoever they are, said that Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made. It sort of reminds me of when Julia Roberts became a multimillion-dollar actress; everyone probably thought it was because of movies like Runaway Bride and the Stepmother, but to me what really revived her career was the nearly perfect and hilarious My Best Friend's Wedding. Similarly, people think Thelma and Louise is what catapulted Brad Pitt to the top, but, for me, it was True Romance. So funny and what a talent!
Graham Greene thought his novella of the same name was not worthy of his own talent, and kept trying to write the great European novel or whatever, but what followed was rather pretentious, it seemed to me; TTM had a charm that was carried out admirably in movied: funny and yet chilling, if those two things can go together. People talk about the scene on the Prater, but for me the quintessential scene is spoiler when the light comes on on Harry's face and we discover he's alive. "They" are right about Welles having been in the greatest movie ever made. They just have their sights trained on the wrong movie. I know Dick Cavett is in agreement with me on TTM's stature; I think he said as much to Robert Osborne on TCM. So I think you're right and you don't have to be embarrassed about it. A movie can have moments of levity and still be wonderful. It doesn't have to be dramatic all the way through. In fact, cutting the tension that way may be one of the things that makes TTM so good.

Never seen Third Man, but CK is brilliant. I could watch it repeatedly just to enjoy how well it was made

If you are interested in repeated viewing, a cinema in Vienna, in the Ring near the Hofburg, has it every night.

Welles did things with lighting & camera angles that still are unmatched, and Kane was a great mystery to slowly pierce.
TTM, as you say, has more heart & great suspense.
I admire Kane immensely. I LOVE TTM.
Carpe Noctem!

Kane is excellent for its cinematography and good for its story, but Third Man is a better yarn, a better love story, and characters you care about.

I watched "Citizen Kane" last week and "The Third Man" yesterday, and I can fully agree: CK is good, but not THAT good; as I wrote before: cannot really understand the hype TTM, on the other hand, IS that good (in my opinion) - I like the cinematography more, as well as the characters plus the story itself. Post-war Vienna is a fascinating location, and also I like very much the subtle humor. A real great movie!