History Film / TheThirdMan

* HumansAreInsects: Harry Lime reveals his thoughts on humanity to Holly from atop the Vienna Ferris wheel while looking down upon the park visitors: "Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if one of those... dots... stopped moving forever?" Seems Harry's got a touch of Nazi genocide fever. Class A NeutralEvil -- a calculating and intelligent villain with a wistful smile that marks the musings of a psychopath.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Harry Lime inviting Holly Martins to Vienna [[spoiler:in order to induct him into his black marketeering operation backfires so immensely that Lime is dead by the end of it, since he likely underestimated Holly's BlitheSpirit, which led him straight into the hands of British military police]].

* HumansAreInsects: Harry Lime reveals his thoughts on humanity to Holly from atop the Vienna Ferris wheel while looking down upon the park visitors: "Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if one of those... dots... stopped moving forever?" Seems Harry's got a touch of Nazi genocide fever. Class A ChaoticEvil — a calculating and intelligent villain with a wistful smile that marks the musings of a psychopath.

* DownerEnding: At the end, [[spoiler:Harry is dead, Martins is horrified to find out what his supposed friend was, and Anna ignores and hates him]]. Surprisingly both for Hollywood given its love of a happy ending, and for Graham Greene given how depressingly most of his books ended, the film ends more depressingly than Greene's original screenplay and the subsequent novella. In the original screneplay and the novella, [[spoiler:Anna walks off together with Holly/Rollo Martins', holding his hand.]] In the film, [[spoiler:she ignores him and walks straight past him, leaving him there alone]].
** Graham Greene frequently stated he preferred the film's ending

--> Now the city is divided into four zones, you know. But the center of the city, that's international, policed by an international patrol, one member of each of the four powers... [[SarcasmMode Wonderful! What a hope they had]]. [[ObstructiveBureaucrat All strangers to the place... and none of them could speak the same language... Except of course a smattering of German]]. Good fellows on the whole. Did their best, you know.

** Even more specifically, “sprechen Sie Österreichisch?” According to Anna’s [[spoiler:forged]] papers, she is an Austrian national from Graz, but all her German lines are in Hochdeutsch (high German), which Austrians would only speak in formal contexts. When her landlady despairs at the repeated presence of Allied soldiers in her flat, Anna’s response is a very Hochdeutsch “ich weiß nicht!” (“I don’t know!”). [[spoiler:It’s an early indication that she is in fact not a native speaker.]]

* BadassLongcoat: Holly Martins, Major Calloway, and [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] wear trenchcoats, longcoats, and plain old coats.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Despite being alerted by the British authorities of what kind of person Harry Lime really was (and she believing them!) Anna can never get over Harry, despite Holly Martins' efforts. She seems to be opening up to his advances midway through the film, but when she realizes Lime is alive and Martins is collaborating to capture him, she ends up resenting and ignoring Martins for good.

*** Of course, [[FridgeBrilliance this makes more sense]] when you remember [[TheSociopath what]] the speaker is: a ConMan, [[ConsummateLiar shameless liar]], and [[LackOfEmpathy psychopathic murderer]] that has come to exploit Vienna as a [[TheDon criminal mastermind]] cooperating with [[RedsWithRockets a despotic tyranny.]] [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] is a confident, charming monster gifted at [[IndyPloy improvisation]] and manipulating people but whose friendliness is skin deep and knowledge is only a bit deeper. He is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is [[spoiler: and dies from overestimating his knowledge of others.]]

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Despite being alerted by the British authorities of what kind of person Harry Lime really was, Anna can never get over Harry, despite Holly Martins' efforts. She seems to be opening up to his advances midway through the film, but when she realizes Lime is alive and Martins is collaborating to capture him, she ends up resenting and ignoring Martins for good.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Despite being alerted by the British authorities of what kind of person Harry Lime really was, Anna can never get over Harry, despite Holly Martins' efforts. She seems to be opening up to his advances midway through the film, but when she realizes Martins is collaborating to capture Lime, she ends up resenting him.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Played with in the case of Captain Calloway. Initially, he appears to be at best overbearing and unfairly cracking down on small black market activity of cigarette smuggling, and at worst to be a corrupt cop trying to pin murder allegations on the innocent and dead Harry Lime. However, as the film develops, Holly and the audience realise he has been right from the very start about exactly who Hary was, what he did, and why Calloway has good reason to loathe him.

* JobTitle: The title refers to the mysterious conspirator involved in Harry' death.

** Moreover, for hundreds of years, the Swiss were not only at war with one another, but their main export was The Swiss Guard, some of the finest mercenaries Europe had ever seen, who still serve as the Pope's personal bodyguards to this day. In fact, the Swiss were major participants in the Italian Wars, **alongside** the Borgias!

** Moreover, for hundreds of years, the Swiss were not only at war with one another, but their main export was The Swiss Guard, some of the finest mercenaries Europe had ever seen, who still serve as the Pope's personal bodyguards to this day. In fact, the Swiss were major participants in the Italian Wars, alongside the Borgias!