Line #22 Film/TheThirdMan


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_third_man_poster_11065139.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful. You know what the fellow said: in Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."''[[note]]Cuckoo clocks were actually invented in the Black Forest (now in Baden-Württemberg, Germany). Sorry, Switzerland.[[/note]]
4	-->-- '''Harry Lime'''
5
6	''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British FilmNoir set in post-war Vienna, directed by Creator/CarolReed from a story by Creator/{{Graham Greene\|Author}} and starring Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/AlidaValli, Creator/TrevorHoward, Creator/BernardLee and Creator/OrsonWelles.
7
8	Down-on-his-luck American writer Holly Martins (Cotten) arrives in postwar UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} to meet with an OldFriend, Harry Lime (Welles), who has offered him a job. Unfortunately, the day Martins arrives, he finds out that Lime is dead.
9
10	Martins becomes entangled in a web of stories that make his pulp {{Western}}s seem quaint in comparison. Investigating the death of his friend in order to clear his name from the selling of stolen and diluted penicillin he meets Lime's former love interest, a seemingly crooked cop, and a porter who has seen far too much. Martin's quest to clear the name of his friend drags him into dangerous territory and challenges his [[BlackAndWhiteMorality preconceived notions of good and evil]].
11
12	The story takes many of the tropes commonly associated with FilmNoir and plays with them. The film is also famous for its hypnotic music score by zitherist Anton Karas (whose title theme became a huge hit).
13
14	Led to the RadioDrama series ''Radio/TheLivesOfHarryLime''. Welles based his film ''Film/MrArkadin'' on one of the plots from that radio show.
15
16	'''Be warned that, due to the nature of this film, there are some unmarked spoilers below.'''
17	----
18	!!This film provides examples of:
19
20	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The spacious sewers of Vienna play a vital role. The ending was largely shot in the city's real sewers, and features [[spoiler:Harry]] being chased by a RealLife squad of policemen that existed for the sole purpose of patrolling its sewers!
21	* AccidentalMisnaming:
22	** Martins keeps addressing Calloway as "Callahan".
23	---> It's Calloway. I'm English, not Irish.
24	** At several points Anna accidentally addresses Holly as [[FreudianSlip "Harry."]]
25	* AdaptationalNationality: Holly and Harry were both English in the original novella. In the film, they're American.
26	* AdaptationDistillation: The final film discards the [[spoiler:happier]] ending initially written by screenwriter Graham Greene and appearing in Greene's novella of the story. Greene later said he preferred the film's ending.
27	* AdaptationNameChange: Martins' first name is changed from Rollo to Holly.
28	* TheAdjectivalMan: The title of the film.
29	* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Despite everything he did, Harry's final moments are quite somber, as he futilely tries to grasp for the outside world through the grate, before quietly accepting his death at the hands of his childhood friend. Holly certainly doesn't feel happy afterwards.]]
30	* 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 [[spoiler: Lime is alive and Martins is collaborating to capture him]], she ends up resenting and ignoring Martins for good.
31	* AmusementPark: [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] gives the film's famous "cuckoo clock" speech inside the Ferris wheel at the city's Wurstelprater park.
32	* AntagonistTitle: [[spoiler: The title refers to Harry Lime]].
33	* TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople: [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler: Lime]] himself, it's clear that the "cuckoo-clock" speech was only an attempt to manipulate Holly.
34	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Every Part of the famous cuckoo-clock speech is false:
35	** For starters, the Borgia did not rule Italy for thirty years. They only ever ruled Rome and UsefulNotes/ThePapalStates, and, even then, UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI only had a term for 9 years; with his death, [[BrieferThanTheyThink the Borgia were finished as a political entity]] in European politics. The Renaissance had begun and been ongoing for a hundred years at that point, and it was centered in Florence under the Medici which ''was'' a republic (albeit corrupt and oligarchical); that's where Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and others all came from[[note]]The speech might have been better served if Lime substituted the Medici for the Borgia and made 30 years 160 years[[/note]]. The Renaissance only spread to Rome after the Borgia were toppled, and, while Leonardo did fraternize with Cesare Borgia, his best works [[note]]The Last Supper, the Mona Lisa[[/note]] were commissions that preceded and succeeded that association.
36	** Switzerland wasn't quite a cultural wasteland drudged by peace. It was the birth place and residence of mathematics geniuses like Leonard Euler and the Bernouli family as well as thinkers like Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau, Benjamin Constant, Germaine de Staël, and UsefulNotes/CarlJung.
37	** 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!
38	** And, of course, the cuckoo-clock was invented in the Black Forest.
39	*** 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 [[UsefulNotes/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.]]
40	* BadassLongcoat: Holly Martins, Major Calloway, and [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] wear trench coats, Duffel coats, and loden coats respectively.
41	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] is actually the instigator of all the crimes that happen in the movie.
42	* BigEntrance: [[spoiler: Harry]] gets [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeJVNQ4ngfo one of the best entrances in film history (Warning: MAJOR spoilers)]].
43	* BigShadowLittleCreature: Police on a night stakeout see a threatening shadow cast two stories high. It turns out to be a balloon peddler.
44	* BilingualBonus: ''Sprechen Sie Deutsch?''
45	** 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)[[spoiler:, which Austrians only speak in formal contexts]]. When her landlady despairs at the repeated presence of Allied soldiers in her flat and demands to know what’s going on, 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.]]
46	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Martins shoots his best friend and loses Anna in the process. It helps that his best friend was a complete sociopath who ran an underground penicillin racket that poisoned countless men, women and children. Suffice it to say the good guy won, but probably wished he'd never wandered into Vienna in the first place]].
47	* BlackMarket: The story deals with the black market in post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Vienna.
48	-->'''Opening narrator:''' ''I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm. Constantinople suited me better.''
49	-->[Scenes of black market goods changing hands]
50	-->'''Opening narrator:''' '' I really got to know it in the classic period of the black market. We'd run anything if people wanted it enough and had the money to pay. Of course, a situation like that does tempt amateurs.''
51	-->[Dead body seen floating in the river]
52	-->'''Opening narrator:''' '' But, well, you know, they can't stay the course [[FriendInTheBlackMarket like a professional]].''
53	* BookEnds: The movie starts and ends with a funeral. [[spoiler:Both funerals are for the same character, Harry Lime.]]
54	* BreakingSpeech: [[spoiler: Lime]] gives a tremendously powerful one on [[SignatureScene the Ferris Wheel]].
55	-->'''[[spoiler:[[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.
56	* BreakTheCutie: Calling Holly Martins a cutie may be stretching it, but he has a pretty naive attitude about life before [[spoiler:he brings Harry Lime to justice]], which leaves him profoundly changed and possibly traumatized after all that he saw, and after all the times he [[spoiler:narrowly avoided being murdered]].
57	* BrokenRecord:
58	** [[StopOrIWillShoot Halt! Stehenbleiben, oder ich schieß! Halt! Stehenbleiben, oder ich schieß! Halt! Stehenbleiben, oder ich schieß!]]
59	** Also the 5-year old boy, always with the same sing-song intonation: "Mörder! Mörder! Mörder!"
60	* BulletHolesAndRevelations: Holly and [[spoiler: Harry]] have a stand-off on the stairs leading up to a manhole tunnel. They stare at each other, then it cuts to Captain Calloway hearing the gun go off and [[spoiler: Holly comes walking down the sewer tunnel, alone]].
61	* CentralTheme: [[{{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:
62	** To save Vienna, the Four Powers first have to bomb it.
63	** The Four Powers distrust 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, their mutual distrust turns them into [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]] by default.
64	--> 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. [[DamnedByFaintPraise Did their best, you know]].
65	** To help Vienna get [[BlackMarketProduce needed supplies]], a BlackMarket is established. This helps the Viennese population...but only the ones that can afford it, prompting KillThePoor. Then some smugglers get [[{{Greed}} greedy]] and, realizing the BlackMarket has a limited window of time before it definitively disappears, decide to maximize gains by dilluting penicillin.
66	** Anna Schmidt's favorite way of facing a problem is [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to run away from it]]. This just leaves her with the same problem.
67	** To avoid crossing the MoralEventHorizon of allowing Harry to continue with his penicillin racket, Holly Martins has to cross his own lesser horizon by betraying Harry to the police.
68	* TheChase: The film climaxes with a chase into the sewers of Vienna as Harry goes on the run from the police.
69	* ChekhovMIA: Harry Lime is one of Holly's best friends and the person he came to Vienna to see, but he's absent for much of the movie due to his suspicious death. But who he was and what he did becomes key to the plot in the later half.
70	* CityOfSpies: Post-war Vienna is a hotbed of intrigue (and zither music).
71	* ComingOfAgeStory: Holly is something of ThePollyanna: 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.
72	* CoversAlwaysLie: Many of the posters prominently feature Harry Lime (Orson Welles), even though the character is absent for much of the movie.
73	* CrapsackWorld: What's really depressing is that it was shot ''on location'' in a bombed-out, post WWII-era Vienna.
74	* CreepyChild: Probably not the intent, but the fact that the little boy is smiling while he's yelling about how he thinks Holly killed the porter is a little off-putting.
75	* CultSoundtrack: Probably the UrExample. It boasts a memorable score courtesy of Anton Karas' famous zither music, which sold millions and was even reused as the BGM of the radio series.
76	* {{Deconstruction}}: Half the point of the movie is to question, dissect, and generally shred American notions of heroism. The film pointedly sets up a stereotypical noir storyline of a lone protagonist investigating the murder of his friend, including a romance with his friend's girlfriend, but ends up coming off as naive and easily manipulated [[spoiler:and learns his friend is actually a criminal mastermind whom he has to kill, while in the process suffering an especially painful case of DidNotGetTheGirl]], leaving the story with no joy.
77	* DidNotGetTheGirl: This scene was done so effectively that it's been given a ShoutOut in several later movies, including Creator/MartinScorsese's ''Film/TheDeparted'', Creator/RobertAltman's ''Film/TheLongGoodbye'', and Creator/TheCoenBrothers' ''Film/MillersCrossing''.
78	* DidntSeeThatComing: Harry can manipulate the police because he is TheChessmaster, and can manipulate Holly and Anna because he is a ManipulativeBastard; he could have gotten away with it if Holly didn't wise up at the worst possible moment for him.
79	* 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
80	* DownTheDrain: The climactic chase takes place in the AbsurdlySpaciousSewer system of Vienna.
81	* DutchAngle: The film makes great use of tilted camera angles through the whole movie. After finishing the movie, Carol Reed was presented (either by the crew or a fellow director) with a spirit level to put on his camera in future projects.
82	* EmbarrassingSlide: Captain Calloway is about to show Martins a slide about incriminating evidence that [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] willingly caused the deaths of countless penicillin recipients by watering it down. Instead... he accidentally shows an educational slide of a rhinoceros intended for the Anglo-Austrian re-education programme.
83	-->'''Calloway''': ''(to his subordinate)'' Paine, Paine, Paine!
84	* EmergingFromTheShadows:
85	** [[spoiler: Harry 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]].
86	** Later on we get Calloway, Paine, and another soldier emerging from the shadows [[spoiler: as they wait for Lime]].
87	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Wounded and thus unable to make it outside the sewers, [[spoiler:Harry nods at Holly to finish him off. One thunderous gunshot later, and Lime is done for]].
88	* FakeShemp: Creator/OrsonWelles dithered on showing up to Vienna for filming, arriving two weeks after shooting started. To shoot around this, others dressed in Welles' costume (appropriately padded to approximate Welles' emerging girth) for long shots.
89	* FakingTheDead: Take a wild guess.
90	* FauxAffablyEvil: Harry Lime talks to Holly as if the two are just old friends casually catching up after a long separation at the ferris wheel scene, even though they're discussing fraud and murder for profit. The fact that Harry can be so blasé about being responsible for the deaths of innocents shows just how far gone he is.
91	* FerrisWheelDateMoment: The film invokes this trope for emotional dissonance. Instead of romantic seclusion, the setting allows an open discussion of crime and murder. Also, Harry is exploiting this trope because wants to send Holly an ImpliedDeathThreat because HeKnowsTooMuch.
92	* FilmNoir: Something of a deconstruction of the genre. It's a dark, moody murder mystery, that's a dead ringer for the genre visually and with its plot (a man with a secret dark side is murdered). While the usual Noir stars a hard boiled cynic with good intuition facing off against a dark and uncaring world, the film features an idealistic IdiotHero facing off against a dark and uncaring world, and finds the mystery more than he can handle.
93	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: After Holly fails to get the attention of Anna's cat, Anna mentions that [[spoiler:Harry]] is the only person her cat likes. Soon after, the cat goes outside and unexpectedly approaches a stranger.
94	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
95	** Crabbin mentions that Popescu is a supporter of CRS's medical charity.
96	** Holly talks about how Harry wanted him to write for Harry's medical charity.
97	* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: Adding lyrics made the ThemeTune into an actual song, not just a catchy zither riff.
98	* FreezeFrameBonus:
99	** At one point in the Vienna sewer chase, a painted "O5" can be seen briefly on a wall. This was the sign of an [[LaResistance anti-Nazi resistance]] group in Austria during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Most likely, that was not put there by the filmmakers.
100	** The front of Lime's apartment building has a graffito of the circle + three slashes symbol used by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Front Iron Front]], a 1930s paramilitary arm of the German Social Democratic Party aligned against monarchists, Stalinists, and the Nazis, and also by its Austrian pendant, the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republikanischer_Schutzbund Republikanischer Schutzbund]]''.
101	* GoodAllAlong: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's [[SlouchOfVillainy slouching against]] a [[DueToTheDead tombstone]] on the ''Zentralfriedhof'', sporting a pencil moustache, a [[EvilBrit smarmy English accent]] and a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora covering a VillainousWidowsPeak. He ''could'' be a BigBad straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.
102	* GoodIsNotNice: Calloway is cold and ruthless, but he's unswervingly on the side of law and justice. He takes Martins to a children's hospital to see Lime's victims in order to show him what this case is really all about.
103	* GoryDiscretionShot:
104	** We don't get to see [[spoiler:[[NothingIsScarier the corpses of the porter or Harbin, or any of Harry Lime's victims in the children's hospital]]. Somehow, the shot of the stuffed animals and tiny bookshelf crammed in next to one of dozens of identical hospital beds — the only glimmer of the dying child's individuality, of their true being, ''especially'' when one's possessions are put away '''permanently''' — is worse]].
105	** [[spoiler:Harry Lime's death occurs entirely offscreen. Both of them.]]
106	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: In the Casanova Club when Holly asks Popescu who was the Third Man at Harry's accident, Popescu asks, "Who could have told you a story like that?" Holly, grasping the IdiotBall, tells him it was the Porter at Harry's apartment.
107	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Averted. After Harry makes an ImpliedDeathThreat during his motive speech in the Ferris wheel, Holly tells Harry that the authorities already know that he's NotQuiteDead, so killing him wouldn't change anything.
108	* 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 legitimately dead by the end of it, since he likely underestimated Holly's BlitheSpirit, which led him straight into the hands of British military police]].
109	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Baron Kurtz now works as a black marketeer in post-war Vienna.
110	* 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, a calculating and intelligent villain with a wistful smile that marks the musings of a psychopath.
111	* HumiliationConga: Happens to the hero. Did we mention this is a FilmNoir?
112	* IdiotBall: Holly Martins never met an idiot ball he didn't like. Unfortunately, he's usually not the one who pays for it. His outing of his only witness' identity to people who were likely complicit in the crime he's investigating is a highlight.
113	* 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]].
114	* InsertCameo: Carol Reed's hands as Harry Lime's, grasping through the sewer grate.
115	* KickTheDog: Lime shoots the relatively harmless [[spoiler:[[NiceGuy Sergeant Paine]]]] when the poor sap stumbles towards him.
116	* TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: Paine is a huge fan of Holly's novels and consistently praises them to Holly and others.
117	* KnightInSourArmor: Dealing with the rampant corruption and endemic JurisdictionFriction in Vienna has made Major Calloway almost as callous and cynical as the criminals he pursues. Nevertheless, he still has a keen sense of right and wrong, and he pursues the penicillin ring in part because their actions are hurting innocents, including children.
118	* KubrickStare: Used by Baron Kurtz (albeit in a non-threatening context), making this trope OlderThanTheyThink.
119	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: The last minute of the film shows Anna walking down a street towards Martins, but she then just walks right past him without a glance.
120	* {{Leitmotif}}: The Harry Lime theme underscores the menace and charisma of Harry's presence in the film.
121	* LickedByTheDog: Anna says her cat only liked Harry, and it's the cat jumping out the window and running out on the street that alerts us to Harry's return.
122	* LookBothWays: Harry Lime was hit by a truck when he crossed the street in front of his home. [[spoiler:At least, it is the official version of his death.]]
123	* {{Masquerade}}: Holly poses as an ''active'' author to obtain favors while he's stuck in Vienna. It's noticeably easy for him, since he is a writer, but is actually occupied with the investigation of the suspicious and [[spoiler:faked]] death of his friend, Harry Lime.
124	* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Lime wordlessly asks Martins to shoot him once it's clear there's no escape.]]
125	* MistakenForSpecialGuest: Martins is believed to be a more famous author by the character Crabbin. This is more developed in the novel, in which the rather macho Martins writes under a pseudonym who shares a surname with a famous novelist known for a "feminine" writing style (according to WordOfGod, the famous novelist was a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of the very gay Creator/EMForster).
126	* MostWritersAreWriters: The protagonist, Martins, is a writer of western novels.
127	* MultinationalTeam: The International Police patrolling Vienna 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.
128	* 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]].
129	** Even if Lime didn't [[spoiler:kill Porter himself,]] the poor man's death is still an example.
130	** 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.
131	** He also [[spoiler:just shoots Paine when he stumbles out in front of him]].
132	** And to be perfectly consistent, when he is trapped in Vienna's sewers, he agrees to Holly's [[spoiler: MercyKill]].
133	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Holly badgers people he suspects of lying about the death of Lime and thinks are responsible for murdering him, yet he ''still'' tells these same people the identity of a witness who contradicts their story and everything about him. [[spoiler: Unsurprisingly, this witness is murdered]].
134	* NoHealthcareInTheApocalypse: After its devastation by the recent war, Vienna is suffering from a shortage of penicillin, with the only reliable sources coming from the military hospitals. Harry Lime led a smuggling ring that stole and diluted these supplies for sale on the black market, causing much death and suffering.
135	* NothingIsScarier: We don't see anything in the children's hospital beyond select shots of toys, which makes the entire sequence infinitely more disturbing and tragic.
136	* NotMyDriver: Subverted. Holly thinks his cabby is abducting him and is working for the conspiracy because he DrivesLikeCrazy and doesn't answer any of his questions, but the guy's really just driving him to the lecture he was scheduled to do (and is extremely late for) and doesn't speak English.
137	* {{Novelization}}: An unusual case, as Greene wrote the story as a novel first without any intent to publish it, believing that going straight to the screenplay format would make him lose the soul of his idea. It ended up being published a year after the film's release.
138	* OffScreenTeleportation: How exactly ''did'' [[spoiler:Harry Lime]] get out of the bricked-up doorway and up the street without Holly catching him?
139	* OhCrap: The porter when he gets caught trying to help Martins with his investigation. It's the last time we see him alive.
140	* OldFriend: A dark 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]].
141	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Alida Valli (playing Anna) obviously believed that it it would be appropriate to use several English accents in her role as an east-European escapee of Communism; one time it's Russian, another time it's perfect British English, then it's German English, then one time it's American English, then Dutch English.
142	* OpeningMonologue: Done in the original UK release by [[CreatorCameo director Carol Reed]], and in the US version by Joseph Cotten.
143	* PetTheDog: 'Baron' Kurtz pets a dog while trying to confuse Holly Martins.
144	** 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 presence, which leads to a chase, Sergeant Paine's death, and Harry Lime's unceremonious execution]].
145	* PetPositiveIdentification: Harry Lime had been declared dead in the beginning of the film, and while looking around Harry's apartment Holly learns that Harry's cat would only get close to Harry. At a crucial moment in the film, Harry's cat is shown approaching a figure in the shadows, until a light is shined on a not-so-dead Harry.
146	* PoliceAreUseless: Subverted. Holly is initially angry with the police for not taking his claims about Lime's murder seriously, and he yellos at them for prioritizing "minor" crimes like racketeering. However, Calloway and Paine are part of the reason Holly [[spoiler:and the gang catch Harry Lime]] and they were more right than Holly was about the initial scenario.
147	* PosthumousCharacter: Harry Lime is the central figure of the entire story, even though the movie's second scene is his funeral. [[spoiler:Of course, he's not really dead...]]
148	* POVSequel: The screenwriter (author Graham Greene) wrote a book that was published to coincide with the film release with the British officer's POV.
149	* PreciousPuppy: The adorable puppy that just appears in one scene with Baron Kurtz.
150	* {{Prequel}}: There was also a radio serial with Lime's exploits entitled ''The Adventures of Harry Lime'', starring Welles.
151	* PresentAbsence: Harry Lime is one of the most famous examples in all of cinema. His actions influence the story, yet he's barely in the film.
152	* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Dr. Winkel has to clarify how his name is pronounced.
153	-->'''Martins:''' Could he, could he have been pushed, Dr. Winkle?\
154	'''Dr. Winkel:''' '''V'''inkel. I cannot give an opinion.
155	* PuttingOnTheReich: Many modern viewers may have noticed that the Vienna policemen's uniforms are original [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Third Reich]] police and army uniforms with merely the swastikas removed. It's TruthInTelevision; the film was made in 1949, and the police and armies had not yet been issued any updated uniforms so early after the war (not even for the filming). These uniforms would remain until well into the 50s.
156	* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:Lime dies, Sgt. Paine dies, Martins DidNotGetTheGirl, and said girl will most probably be deported back to Czechoslovakia to face Soviet law. Furthermore, the children who suffer from Lime's diluted penicillin will not get saved by Lime getting neutralized either. But hey, at least future patients will be safe from Lime's diluted medicines, and this counts as well!]]
157	* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Unsubtitled German dialog is famously used in order to emphasize how totally out of his depth Martins is when he visits Vienna. It also serves to show the EndOfAnAge: Europe has ended the GenteelInterbellumSetting, survived UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust and everyone has the uncomfortable sensation of BlueAndOrangeMorality. This is the dawning of the era of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in Europe: the languages that will be spoken by the people who really count would be English and Russian.
158	* 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 like 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 Harry was, what he did, and why Calloway had good reason to loathe him.
159	* RedHerring: The film occasionally throws out possible suspects for the titular third man before TheReveal.
160	** [[spoiler:Crabbin]], who invited Holly to a CRS meeting, greets Popescu as an old friend after Popescu shows up to said meeting with some henchmen to capture Holly.
161	** [[spoiler:Joseph Harbin]] is a a doctor who had a secret meeting with Harry and mysteriously disappeared after said meeting. However, when the police do find [[spoiler:Harbin]], it turns out he was DeadAllAlong.
162	* RevolversAreJustBetter: Lime prefers a small, concealable revolver over the clumsy [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter sawed-off]], unwieldy assault rifle, or the cumbersome rifle that others carry in the film. The revolver that he carries helps him by allowing him to move fast, [[spoiler:kill one of his pursuers, and almost get away from the police]]. Calloway and Paine also carry Webley service revolvers.
163	* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Lime shooting down [[NiceGuy Paine]] is the point of no return for the narrative and the moment Holly accepts there's really no way out of this other than Lime's death.]]
164	* SceneryPorn[=/=]SceneryGorn: The production put a genuine and bombed-out Vienna to good use. About the only scenes other than interior shots not filmed actually on location were some set in the Vienna sewers; even much of that sequence was actually filmed in those sewers (the Wienkanal storm-runoff system, to be precise), with the sewer cops being genuine off-duty Vienna sewer patrol officers. (Some shots were recreations due to Creator/OrsonWelles being two weeks late for shooting -- thereby missing the bulk of the chase sequence filming -- and his unwillingness to go down into the sewers himself.) Even today, Vienna is not above exploiting the fame of the film to attract tourists.
165	* SeenItAll: Calloway seems unaffected by much of what he sees, save for the death of [[spoiler:[[NiceGuy Sergeant Paine]]]].
166	* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:Sgt Paine, who has primarily been used for comic relief, is killed just before Holly has to kill his best friend.]]
167	* SissyVillain: Lime's associate Kurtz certainly has his share of signifiers.
168	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Very much on the cynical side.
169	* SmallRoleBigImpact: The chillingly evil Harry Lime is at the center of the plot but appears for less than 10 minutes on screen. Orson Welles plays him as just a normal guy you wouldn't look twice at, and takes three seconds in a search-light and a somewhat sheepish 'you caught me' grin to completely upstage Joseph Cotten's excellent performance and steal the film.
170	* SoundtrackDissonance: Anton Karas's bouncing melodies, happy harmonies, and general bright zither playing over the one of the bleakest, most cynical films ever made.
171	* SpiritualAntithesis: The cynical, post-war antidote to the optimism and hope of ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''. It contains many of the same story elements and inverts them. Watch them back to back. It's amazing. And depressing.
172	* SpiritualSuccessor / {{Spinoff}}: Welles later adapted three scripts he wrote for ''The Adventures of Harry Lime'' into the movie ''Mr. Arkadin''.
173	* TakeOurWordForIt: Used for excellent dramatic effect. Holly is finally convinced that his friend Harry Lime is completely evil and needs to be killed when he sees some of the children who took Lime's phony black market penicillin. We don't see the children, but from Holly's reaction, it isn't pretty, and probably far beyond what could be depicted onscreen at the time anyway.
174	* TelevisionGeography:
175	** Lime's apartment is stated to be located at 15 ''Stiftgasse''. This is a real address, but looks nothing like the one depicted in the movie; those scenes were filmed by the ''Hofburg,'' the imperial city palace, on ''Josephsplatz'' (which is also why there is a statue of Joseph II to begin with).
176	** In one scene, Holly chases [[spoiler:Harry]] from Anna's apartment on the iconic ''Mölker Bastei'' to the ''Hof'' in the mere blink of an eye. In actuality, it would have taken him half a kilometre (or 1500 feet).
177	** The foot chase in the climax starts out among the rubble of the ''Hoher Markt'', and ends up, mere seconds later, at a sewer entrance on ''Karlsplatz''. Those two locations are actually a kilometre and a half (roughly a mile) apart. It's also worth mentioning that the ''Karlsplatz'' lay in the Russian sector, making a chase starring British military police very difficult.
178	* TitleDrop:
179	-->'''Popescu:''' Can I ask, is Mr. Martins engaged in a new book?\
180	'''Holly:''' Yes, it's called ''The Third Man''.\
181	'''Popescu:''' A novel, Mr. Martins?\
182	'''Holly:''' It's a murder story. I've just started it. It's based on fact.
183	* TooDumbToLive: Holly Martins, which is part of the point of the movie [[spoiler:even though he survives]]. This is outright {{Lampshaded}} by Calloway, who says ''"[Holly] must have been born to get killed."''
184	* TroubleEntendre: Martins and Popescu confront one another at the literary society, with Popescu attempting to threaten Martins into stopping his investigation into the "third man." To get the message past the other attendees, Popescu's remarks are disguised as an innocuous conversation about a new book Martins is supposedly writing.
185	* VehicleVanish: Before Holly can get Harry, a car speeds past him and Harry escapes into the night.
186	* VirtueIsWeakness: Implicit throughout Lime's speeches to Martins, especially on the Ferris wheel.
187	-->'''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 would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare?
188	* WalkingSpoiler: Harry Lime, [[spoiler:seeing as throughout most of the movie, he's thought to be dead]].
189	* WateringDown: Harry dilutes penicillin to the point it [[spoiler:is almost totally worthless, even fatal]].
190	* WeCanRuleTogether: Tries to convince Holly to join him, along with [[spoiler:Anna]].
191	* WhamShot:
192	** [[spoiler:The iconic shot of Harry grinning from the darkness.]]
193	** [[spoiler:The final shot of Anna walking by Holly, completely ignoring him.]]
194	* WhatIsEvil: The famous cuckoo clock speech, in which Harry defends his reprehensible actions by discoursing for a while on the nature of human weakness and virtue (Harry has little sympathy for either).
195	* 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. In fairness, though, the film ''is'' almost entirely about his character.
196	* WritersSuck: Holly Martins writes cheap western novels. His career is not successful: he goes to Vienna because he is broke and Harry offers him a job.
197	----
198	->'''Calloway:''' ''"Be sensible, Martins.'''

Context Film / TheThirdMan