History Film / TheThirdMan

*** 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 squave, sophisticated monster gifted at [[IndyPloy improvisation]] and manipulating people but who is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is [[spoiler: and is destroyed by his hubris.]|

*** Of course, [[FridgeBrilliance this makes more sense]] when you remember the speech is from: a [[TheSociopath psychopathic]] [[ConsummateLiar Shameless Liar]] and Murderer making his living as a brutal [[TheDon Criminal Mastermind]] cooperating with [[RedsSWithRockets a despotic tyrannny.]] One who is skilled at [[IndyGambit improvization]] and manipulating people[[spoiler: but whose hubris leads to his downfall.]|

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The famous cuckoo-clock speech is this:

-->'''[[Creator/OrsonWelles Lime]]''': Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or [[PragmaticVillainy would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare]]? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax — the only way you can save money nowadays.

-->'''Calloway''': ''(to his subordinate)'' Oh, Payne...

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Pretty much every character besides for Holly, Harry, Anna, Calloway and Paine end up disappearing after their role in the story is done with. What happens to [[spoiler: Harry's business partners in the black market trade]] is never once confirmed by the end of the story.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Half the point of the movie is to question, dissect, and generally shred American notions of heroism.

* WolverinePublicity: Creator/OrsonWelles, who is only in the last 30 minutes of the film but is featured on many posters. Welles was a big star at the time.

* ActionSurvivor: Holly Martins is just a writer, and manages to survive several attempted murders due to the fact that he looked too much into the death of a close friend. [[spoiler:In the end, he even manages to work with the police and chase a child-killing, sociopathic drug lord into the sewers and kill him]].

* AffablyEvil:
** Popescu is always polite and well-spoken, even when [[spoiler:threatening the life of Holly Martins and Anna Schmidt]].
** [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] comes off as a charismatic LovableRogue engaging in relatively harmless crimes... but is in fact a ruthless racketeer who stole penicillin, watered it down to the point of being useless, and sold it, causing numerous deaths, [[WouldHurtAChild including children]], just to line his own pockets. He explains all this in patient, understanding tones, never giving any indication that it's an act. A major part of Holly's CharacterDevelopment in the film is being confronted with the realization that, unlike in the books he writes, a villain doesn't have to act the part; [[spoiler:Harry]] could be both outwardly friendly and likable ''and'' capable of all the crimes of which he was accused.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Anna gets the same lecture on how evil [[spoiler:Harry]] is as Martins, but that doesn't make her any less worshipful of him. Her justification: "A person doesn't change just because you learn more about them." Apparently, Anna doesn't do FridgeLogic. [[spoiler:Harry]] was ''always'' a sociopath. Though the reason she loves him, forging her papers and thus letting her stay in Vienna longer, stands regardless of what else [[spoiler:Harry]] did.

* AntiHero: Both Holly Martins and Major Calloway. Martins is a ClassicalAntiHero; he wants to solve the mystery of his best friend's death and bring justice to the world. However, he's overly idealistic and is a ManChild and a IdiotHero, though he does grow wiser at the end of the film. Major Calloway, on the other hand, is a PragmaticHero; he wants to capture criminals and bring an end to crime. However, he's willing to blackmail innocents, use people as pawns, and kill in cold blood if it's necessary. He's also TheCynic and a KnightInSourArmour, rejecting all of Holly's notions of heroism.

* ArchEnemy: [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] to Holly Martins.

* BadassLongcoat: Holly Martins, Major Calloway, and [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] wear trenchcoats, longcoats, and plain-old coats.
* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: Holly Martins spends most of the film trying to prove his dead friend's innocence of the bad name he garnered selling diluted penicillin in post WWII Vienna, [[spoiler:only to discover at the end that his friend (still alive after faking his death), did actually sell the bad drugs to make a profit]].

* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Holly is investigating the murder of his friend Harry. It turns out that Harry is alive and engaged in horrible crimes. He's the villain of the story.]]

* BlitheSpirit: Subverted with Holly Martins. He's a brash American who comes to Vienna and thinks he's going to prove everyone wrong about his dead friend Harry Lime, only to end up in over his head and screwing everything up.

* BreakTheHaughty: Holly is a belligerent, stubborn, and disorderly man who [[spoiler:brings Harry Lime to justice]] but is left profoundly changed and possibly traumatized after all that he saw, and after all the times he [[spoiler:narrowly avoided being murdered]].

* BrokenBird: Anna is this by the beginning of the film, and [[spoiler:even more so at the end]]. She's reluctant to open up to people due to her dark past, which involved fleeing to Austria during the war.

* ByTheBookCop: Calloway accomplishes much as the head of police, such as [[spoiler:nabbing Harry Lime]], without ever breaking the law.
** It is also exploited by ManipulativeBastard Lime. He realizes Calloway is incorruptible...but all he has to do is [[FakingTheDead fake his own death]] so Calloway will follow the rules and close the case without further investigation.

** To avoid crossing the MoralEventHorizon of allowing Harry to continue with his penicillin racket, Holly Martins has to cross his own MoralEventHorizon by betraying Harry to the police.

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Harry]] runs UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} like he owns it, and [[spoiler:would've gotten away with it, too, had the police not chased and cornered him by spotting him in the open]].

* ComingOfAgeStory: Holly is something of a ManChild: the books he makes a living writing are escapist westerns with BlackAndWhiteMorality. His naive search for justice in the death of his best friend forces him to come to terms with a CrapsackWorld.

* DirtyCommunists: A light example, but Anna faces deportation from the Russians for being from Czechoslovakia. [[spoiler:Lime also mentions he does some work for the Soviets, in return for them turning a blind eye to his activities.]]
* DoubleAgent: Anna is very much this for [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] and Holly, [[spoiler:appearing to help the latter, only to betray him for Lime's safety]].

-->'''Calloway''': *to his subordinate* Oh, Payne...

* FerrisWheelDateMoment: The film invokes this trope for emotional dissonance. Instead of romantic seclusion, the setting allows an open discussion of crime and murder. Also, this is [[OneLastFieldTrip the last ride of Holly’s childhood]]. Also, Harry is exploiting this trope because wants to send Holly an ImpliedDeathThreat menacing Holly with a DisneyDeath because HeKnowsTooMuch.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Averted. After Harry makes an ImpliedDeathThreat during his motive speech in the ferris wheel, Holly tells him that the authorities already know that he's NotQuiteDead, so killing Holly wouldn't change anything.

* ImpliedDeathThreat: Harry Lime casually opens the door of the ferris wheel while discussing the fiscal worth of human life. Watching him carefully, [[GenreSavvy Holly Martins gets a good grip on the doorframe]].
* InHarmsWay: Holly Martins is sort of like this, having some traits of IntrepidReporter by investigating the death of his friend for himself.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Harry started out as a LovableRogue where his schemes, while illegal, were mostly harmless -- like a gambling den. [[spoiler:Then he stole penicillin from a military hospital, watered it down to the point it became worthless and sold it on the black market, indifferent to the deaths he caused.]]
* KnightInSourArmour: Major Calloway is a dedicated policeman, but is also a very cynical and pessimistic pragmatist who rejects Holly's idealistic heroism.

* LackOfEmpathy:
** Harry doesn't show any remorse for the victims of his fake penicillin.
** Major Calloway, exemplified when he's talking about the sickly children he and Holly see in the hospital (though it could be a rather brutal coping mechanism):
-->"It had meningitis. They gave it some of [[spoiler:Lime's penicillin]]. Terrible pity, isn't it."
* LateToTheTragedy

* ManipulativeBastard: Lime constantly uses people (notably Anna and Martins) and will throw them away without a thought when they're no longer useful to him.

* MostWritersAreWriters: Martins is an American pulp Western writer.
* MultinationalTeam: The International Police patrolling Vienna centre was this by necessity. Each of the British, American, Soviet, and French occupying forces had to be represented, so no MP could roam around without being accompanied by the other three (in the movie, it becomes especially comical when several of those 'squads' are tasked with a simple and straightforward search of Anna's apartment; more than a ''dozen'' policemen end up crowding her small abode). And that's not even counting in the native ''Austrian'' police.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Lime is a strong adherent of this rule. While he doesn't believe murder's the best situation when he's trying to justify [[spoiler:inducing meningitis and death in children]], he personally threatens to throw [[spoiler:Holly]] out of a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath Ferris wheel]], and is implied to have [[spoiler:thrown [[{{Elders}} Porter]] to his death]]. The [[spoiler:body in his grave]] was [[TheInformant Joseph Harbin]], an orderly who [[spoiler:stole penicillin for Lime]] and went missing after defecting and going to the authorities. [[SarcasmMode Gee, what could have happened to him?]]. He also [[spoiler:just shoots Paine when he stumbles out in front of him]].

* NotSoDifferent: "If I offered you $20,000[[note]]Roughly $213,000 in 2018[[/note]] for every one of those dots that stopped moving, would you really tell me to keep my money, or would you start calculating how many dots you could afford to spare?"
* NotSoStoic: Harry's not exactly a steely character, but his behavior turns into something ''very'' different [[spoiler:when he runs from the cops and shoots Sgt. Paine]].

* OldFriend: A darker example. Holly goes to post-WWII Vienna to meet up with Harry, who [[spoiler:ends up having become a child-killing criminal, and whose actions turn Holly from a jovial and semi-innocent guy into a severely depressed one]].
* OneLastFieldTrip: Vienna as a whole for Holly, signaling his delayed ComingOfAgeStory from a ManChild to an adult, forcing him to admit the end of his bromance with Harry Lime, and to top it all, [[spoiler:to recognize the [[FakingTheDead not actually dead]] Harry Lime as his BigBadFriend]], with the film's famous [[BreakThemByTalking cuckoo clock speech]] delivered [[FerrisWheelDateMoment at the top of a Ferris wheel]].
** The FerrisWheelDateMoment is one specific example: Holly wants to talk with Harry in a private place, Harry suggest the Ferris Wheel. Before entering the Ferris Wheel, Holly wants to believe in the innocence of his OldFriend. Then Harry reveals himself as the BigBadFriend, and reveals he exploited the FerrisWheelDateMoment so he can make Holly an ImpliedDeathThreat menacing Holly with a DisneyDeath because HeKnowsTooMuch, all of them while being perfectly AffablyEvil. Holly's childhood ends when he steps out the Ferris Wheel.

** Calloway looks out for Holly and Anna numerous times in the film. He agrees to [[spoiler:give safe passage out of Vienna for Anna]]. However, she [[spoiler:incriminates herself when she warns Lime of the police's prescence, which leads to a chase, Sergeant Paine's death, and Harry Lime's unceremonious execution]].

* TheSociopath: Harry hows no remorse for all of his horrible actions, not even for when he [[spoiler:throws an old man out of a window to his death]]. At least played with at the end. [[spoiler:He's visibly distressed when running from the police, and especially when he feels he has to shoot Sgt. Paine.]]

* TheStoic: Calloway doesn't seemed all that bothered when surveying children infected with meningitis (courtesy of [[spoiler: Harry Lime]]). Subverted in the penultimate scene. Calloway appears to be genuinely shocked and concerned when [[spoiler:[[TooDumbToLive Paine]]]] runs out in front of [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] when the latter was known to be out armed and dangerous. Calloway then [[spoiler:tends to Paine's mortal injuries once Lime shoots him, to no avail]].

* UndyingLoyalty: Anna warns [[spoiler:Harry]] of the authorities before they can arrest him. [[spoiler:This is all for naught, however, and Lime is killed rather than arrested.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: Lime's basic line to Martins.

* WickedCultured: PlayedWith. Lime has shades of intelligence and knowledge of culture, detectable upon first viewing. This is possibly subverted in that his famous cuckoo-clock speech includes wrong information; [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Swiss people never invented the cuckoo clock.]] Such a distinction belongs to [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} the Germans]], since its citizens are thought to have invented the clock in the Black Forest area, itself located in the State of Baden-Württemberg (Southwestern Germany). Then again, this speech was [[ThrowItIn included by Orson Welles himself]], and in-universe, Harry Lime acknowledges this information was taken from someone else by saying, "You know what the fellow said..." at the beginning of the speech.
* WideEyedIdealist: Holly Martins begins the movie with a very straightforward trust in people, an innocent determination to get to the truth, and an indignance at people who seem to lie to him. He also idealistically insists that his good friend Harry Lime must have been a good man, no matter what other say. By the end of the film, this worldview is shattered.
* WolverinePublicity: Creator/OrsonWelles, who is only in the last 30 minutes of the film but is featured on many posters. Welles was a big start at the time.
* WouldHurtAChild: More accurately, "doesn't care if they die horribly in a hospital ward", but that's splitting hairs.
* YouKnowTooMuch: [[spoiler:After Harry Lime makes an ImpliedDeathThreat during his motive speech in the ferris wheel, Holly Martins tells him that the authorities already know that he's NotQuiteDead, so killing Holly wouldn't change anything.]]

''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British FilmNoir set in post-war Vienna, directed by Creator/CarolReed from a story by Creator/GrahamGreene and starring Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/AlidaValli, Creator/TrevorHoward, and Creator/OrsonWelles.

-->'''Martins:''' (...) Is it possible... that his death was not just an accident,... Dr. Winkle?\\
'''Dr. Winkel:''' ...*{{Beat}}*... '''''V'''''inkel. I cannot judge it, I wasn't there.

** It also serves to show the EndOfAnAge: Europe has ended the GenteelInterbellumSetting, survived UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust

* AntagonistTitle: The title refers to Harry Lime.

* TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople: Harry Lime's cynical "cuckoo-clock" speech invokes this trope as a kind of defense and excuse for his actions. Not only saying that what he does is okay, but that it would possibly benefit civilization. Though given how his actions only benefit Lime himself, it's clear that the "cuckoo-clock" speech was only an attempt to manipulate Holly.

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

* BreakingSpeech: Lime gives a tremendously powerful one on [[SignatureScene the Ferris Wheel]].

* BulletHolesAndRevelations: Holly and Harry have a stand-off on the stairs up to a manhole tunnel at each other, then it cuts to Captain Calloway hearing the gun go off and [[spoiler:Holly comes walking down the sewer tunnel]].

** It is also exploited by ManipulativeBastard Lim. He realizes Calloway is incorruptible...but all he has to do is [[FakingTheDead fake his own death]] so Calloway will follow the rules and close the case without further investigation.

* TheChessmaster: Harry runs UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} like he owns it, and [[spoiler:would've gotten away with it, too, had the police not chased and cornered him by spotting him in the open]].

* EmbarrassingSlide: Captain Calloway is about to show Martins a slide about incriminating evidence that Harry Lime willingly caused the deaths of countless penicillin recipients by watering it down. Instead... he accidentally shows an educational slide of an elephant intended for the Anglo-Austrian re-education programme.

** Lime. Given the masterful use of shadows as one of his leitmotifs in the film, it may also serve as an accidental [[Radio/TheShadow actor allusion]].
** Later on we get Calloway, Paine, and another soldier emerging from the shadows [[spoiler:as they wait for Lime]].

* BigEntrance: Harry gets [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeJVNQ4ngfo one of the best entrances in film history]].

* BilingualBonus: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

** It is also exploited by ManipulativeBastard Lime, when he realizes Calloway is incorruptible but all he have to do is to [[FakingTheDead fake his own death]] so Calloway will follow the rules and close the case without further investigation.

** To help Vienna to get [[BlackMarketProduce needed supplies]], they have to establish a BlackMarket. This helps the Viennese population...but only the ones that can afford it, prompting KillThePoor. Then some smugglers get [[{{Greed}} gredy]] and realize that the BlackMarket has a limited window of time before it definitively disappears, and decide to maximize gains by dilluting penicillin. This results in KillThemAll.

* CentralTheme: One of them is [[{{Hypocrite}} Hypocrisy]], of the StartXToStopX type, characters are forced to do the exact opposite of what they're trying to fulfill, showing the CrapsackWorld they live in:

* CentralTheme: One of them is [[{{Hypocrite}} Hypocrisy]], of the StartXToStopX type, characters are forced to do the exact opposite of what you're trying to fulfill, showing the CrapsackWorld they live in:

** The Four Powers distruts one another, to control Vienna, they have to renounce control and do TeethClenchedTeamwork. It doesn't matter if they want to be competent or not, the distruts make them ObstructiveBureaucrat by default.

** To help Vienna to get [[BlackMarketProduce needed supplies]], they have to establish a BlackMarket. This helps the Vienna population that can afford it, prompting the KillThePoor. Then some smugglers get [[{{Greed}} gredy]] and realize that the BlackMarket has a window time, they decide to maximize gains dilluting peniciline and results in KillThemAll.
** Anna Schmidt favorite way to face a problem is ScrewThisImOuttaHere, leaving her with the same problem.
** To avoid crossing the MoralEventHorizon of allowing Harry continue with his Peniciline racket, Holly Martins has to cross the MoralEventHorizon betraying Harry to the police.

** To help Vienna to get [[BlackMarketProduce needed supplies]], they have to establish a BlackMarket. This helps the Vienna population that

Down-on-his-luck American writer Holly Martins (Cotten) arrives in postwar Vienna to meet with an old friend, Harry Lime (Welles), who has offered him a job. Unfortunately, the day Martins arrives, he finds out that Lime is dead.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Unsubtitled German dialog is famously used in order to emphasize how totally out of his area Martins is when he visits Vienna.

* OneLastFieldTrip: Vienna as a whole for Holly, signaling his delayed ComingOfAgeStory from a ManChild to an adult, forcing him to admit the end of his bromance with Harry Lime, and to top it all, [[spoiler:to recognize the [[FakingTheDead not actually dead]] Harry Lime as his BigBadFriend]], with the film's famous [[BreakThemByTalking cuckoo clock speech]] delivered [[FerrisWheelDateMoment at the top of a Ferris wheel]].}

* NotSoDifferent: "If I offered you $20,000 for every one of those dots that stopped moving, would you really tell me to keep my money, or would you start calculating how many dots you could afford to spare?"

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Harry started out as a LovableRogue, where his schemes while illegal, were mostly harmless -- like a gambling den. [[spoiler: Then he stole penicillin from q military hospital, watered it down to the point it became worthless and sold it on the black market, indifferent to death he caused.]]