Spoilers ahead.
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Harry Lime
Harry Lime
- Adaptational Nationality: English in the book, American in the film.
- Dead Sidekick: He got run over by a car in Vienna. Or did he?
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: He was this with Holly Martins.
- Killed Offscreen: His death happens offscreen. Both of them.
- Love Interest: Had a girlfriend by the name of Anna Schmidt.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His car crash is why Holly's stay in Vienna turns out to be much longer than he intended.
- Posthumous Character
- Small Role, Big Impact: His death sets the plot of the film in motion.
Holly Martins
Holly Martins
Played by: Joseph Cotten
- Action Survivor: Martins is just a run-of-the-mill writer, and survives several brushes with death, living to the end of the film.
- Adaptational Nationality: English in the book, American in the film.
- Adaptation Name Change: His first name is changed from Rollo to Holly.
- Amateur Sleuth: He decides to begin his own investigation that ends with two innocent people dead... but he discovers the truth about Harry.
- Badass Longcoat: He wears one throughout.
- Beleaguered Childhood Friend: He 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, 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.
- Blithe Spirit: Subverted. 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.
- Book Dumb: Not knowing who or what James Joyce was, and not being informed of what literary components he uses in his cheap novels, he is literally book dumb.
- It's implied that he's just not a good public speaker, and the Joyce questions comes about right around when Popescu shows up, distracting Holly from answering it.
- Classical Anti-Hero: He wants to solve the mystery of his best friend's death and bring justice to the world. However, he's The Pollyanna and something of an Idiot Hero, though he does grow wiser at the end of the film.
- Deadpan Snarker: It wouldn't be a noir film had the protagonist not been one.
- Dead Sidekick: This is his primary motivator at the start of the film, since he just found out about Harry Lime's death, which is faked, by the way.
- Determinator: Stops at nothing to find the truth about the death of Harry Lime.
- Did Not Get the Girl: The final shot of the film is Anna walking past Holly at a graveyard that just saw the real funeral of Harry Lime, probably on account of Holly having killed Lime himself.
- Idiot Ball: Holly catches and holds every single idiot ball this movie throws at him, except when his Old Friend makes an Implied Death Threat on a Ferris Wheel and when Anna passes him at the cemetery and he doesn't follow her.
- In Harm's Way: He's sort of like this, having some traits of Intrepid Reporter by investigating the death of his friend for himself.
- Lethally Stupid: His efforts as an Amateur Sleuth left two innocent people dead.
- Love Triangle: It's implied he still has feelings for Anna, who in turn, still loves the recently deceased Harry Lime, who in turn, is alive and well.
- Martial Pacifist: Holly doesn't hurt a fly all throughout the movie. That is, until the end of the film, when he finishes Lime with his own gun.
- Most Writers Are Writers: He is a writer, after all.
- The Only Believer: Everyone, including Anna, Harry's lover, believes immediately that he is capable of smuggling penicillin and killing children, Holly is the only one who has trouble believing his Old Friend could do that.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: His masquerade fails to deceive Popescu, "Baron" Kurtz and Dr. Winkel.
- Shadow Archetype: Harry is a Manipulative Bastard and Holly is his Unwitting Pawn, his Spanner in the Works and The Only Believer. In the last minutes of his life, Harry will be Lured into a Trap by Holly and their roles will swap like an Hourglass Plot.
- Spanner in the Works: When Harry decides to be Faking the Dead, so he could not meet Holly, Holly suspects foul play and decides to begin his own investigation and deranges all of Harry's plans.
- Starving Artist: Begins and ends the film as this.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starting out as a bumbling, incompetent faux-investigator, Martins manages to work with the police and chase a child-killing, sociopathic drug lord into the sewers and kill him.
- Took a Level in Cynic: How could he not by the end of the movie? In any other movie, he'd at least try to catch up with Anna after she walks past him and reason with her, but here, he just dejectedly throws a match on the ground and lets her go.
- Unwitting Pawn: Implied Trope because everyone can see Martins is this for Manipulative Bastard Harry Lime, but Martins takes all the movie to realize it, and Martins is really Harry's Spanner in the Works.
Anna Schmidt
Anna Schmidt
Played by: Alida Valli
- Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed, but in the book, Anna isn't part of the attempt to trap Harry and therefore she never tries to warn him.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She gets the same lecture on how evil 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 Fridge Logic. 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 Harry did.
- Broken Bird: She's this by the beginning of the film, and even more so at the end.
- Dirty Communists: A light example, but she faces deportation from the Russians for being from Czechoslovakia.
- Double Agent: She is very much this for Harry Lime and Holly, appearing to help the latter, only to betray him for Lime's safety.
- Femme Fatale
- Karma Houdini: As evidenced by the last time we see her, she got away (and unscathed, mind you) from the sewer chase of Harry Lime, and it's likely that she fled the authorities soon after to avoid being deported.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Still, she aided and abetted a drug lord who sold very harmful drugs on the European black market, and it is implied that she'll probably be deported back to Czechoslovakia to face Soviet law after the events of the movie.
- Love Triangle: She's part of one with Holly Martins and Harry Lime.
- Mysterious Woman
- The Not-Love Interest: She never really gets together with Holly Martins, as her heart belongs to Harry Lime.
- Undying Loyalty: Anna warns Harry of the authorities before they can arrest him. This is all for naught, however, and Lime is killed rather than arrested.
Major Calloway
Major Calloway
Played by: Trevor Howard
- By-the-Book Cop: Calloway accomplishes much as the head of police, such as nabbing Harry Lime, without ever breaking the law.
- It is also exploited by Manipulative Bastard Lime, when he realizes Calloway is incorruptible but all he have to do is to fake his own death so Calloway will follow the rules and close the case without further investigation.
- Da Chief: He fits this role quite nicely in the film.
- Emotion Suppression: Possibly done to maintain a facade of stoicism.
- I Am Very British: Calloway can be memorable to American (and non-British) audiences, given his heavy RP accent.
- Knight in Sour Armour: He's a dedicated policeman, but is also a very cynical and pessimistic pragmatist who rejects Holly's idealistic heroism.
- Lack of Empathy: 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 Lime's penicillin. Terrible pity, isn't it."
- Police Are Useless: Averted. Calloway and Paine are part of the reason Holly and the gang catch Harry Lime.
- Pet the Dog: He looks out for Holly and Anna numerous times in the film. He agrees to give safe passage out of Vienna for Anna. However, she 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.
- Pragmatic Hero: 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 The Cynic and a Knight in Sour Armour, rejecting all of Holly's notions of heroism.
- Seen It All: Calloway seems unaffected by much of what he sees, save for the death of Sergeant Paine.
- Stiff Upper Lip: Appears to have gotten over the recent deaths of Sergeant Paine and (quite understandably) Harry Lime by the final scene.
- The Stoic: He doesn't seemed all that bothered when surveying children infected with meningitis (courtesy of Harry Lime).
- Subverted in the penultimate scene. Calloway appears to be genuinely shocked and concerned when Paine runs out in front of Harry Lime when the latter was known to be out armed and dangerous. Calloway then tends to Paine's mortal injuries once Lime shoots him, to no avail.
Sergeant Paine
Sergeant Paine
Played by: Bernard Lee
- Ascended Fanboy: He likes Holly Martin's books, and his sincere admiration for him is the reason Holly Martins manages to stay in Vienna.
- Best Friend: Even if he's an underling, he's the best buddy of Major Calloway more than anything else.
- Composite Character: Paine assumes traits of two British soldiers from the tie-in novella: Calloway's assistant Carter (who is willing to criticize his boss's mistakes) and Sgt. Bates, a fan of Martins' books who only appears in the penultimate scene.
- Lowest Common Denominator: He is a Ascended Fanboy of Holly Martin's books, of The Western genre, filled with Black-and-White Morality, Strictly Formula plots and Cool People Rebel Against Authority.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: He is a Nice Guy, but when he talks to Crabbin Paine doesn't know the difference between Hindu Dancers and strippers, and presents Holly as a 'real' writer when everyone else thinks The Western is a genre directed at the Lowest Common Denominator, and presents Holly with the means to stay some days more in Vienna, unaware of the desire of his superior, Major Calloway, to send Holly home as soon as possible.
- Nice Guy: A stark difference to the bleak, bombed-out world of Vienna around him.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Serves as a source of comic relief.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Doesn't understand Holly Martins' sarcasm.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: He's shot dead by Harry Lime right before Holly executes Lime.
- Spanner in the Works / Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His admiration for Holly Martins' westerns drive him to introduce Martins to Crabbin, allowing Martins to stay in Vienna and subsequently allowing Holly to initiate his investigation, that would end with two innocents dead, including Paine.
- Too Dumb to Live: He runs out in front of Harry Lime, who shoots Paine with his revolver in desperation.
Crabbin
Crabbin
Played by: Wilfrid Hyde-White
- Bookworm: Crabbin's the owner of a book club.
- Captain Oblivious: Fails to pick up on much of Holly Martins' sarcasm.
- Nice Guy: Offers hospitality and a place to stay to Holly.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears after Holly scrams from the book club.
Karl / Porter
Karl (Porter)
Played by: Paul Hörbiger
- Culture Clash / Malaproper: Played with. When describing where Harry Lime might've gone after he got run over, he gives the wrong directions to Holly, attributing Hell as being above, and Heaven being underneath the Earth.
- Disney Villain Death: This is his eventual fate.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason for which he dies.
- The Mob Boss Is Scarier: He refuses to divulge any useful information out of fear for his personal and his family's safety. When he does finally give information to Anna and Holly, he is killed.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He's killed early on, partly to establish how ruthless the baddies are.
"Baron" Kurtz
"Baron" Kurtz
Played by Ernst Deutsch
- Ambiguously Gay: He's very effiminate in his choice of clothing and manner of speaking.
- Evil All Along: Possibly. It's never confirmed on screen, but he is one of the probably guilty men who allegedly carried Lime out of the road.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: He now works as a black marketeer in post-war Vienna.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Carries his tiny dog with him wherever he goes.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Kurtz leaves the story once Holly confronts him while the former is on a roof.
Dr. Winkel
Dr. Winkel
Played by: Erich Ponto
- Blatant Lies: Claims he is only Lime's "medical adviser," and offers information that contradicts that of the porter.
- Jerkass: Winkel acts this way to Holly when he visits the doctor in his apartment.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: As a doctor, Winkel most likely worked as part of the penicillin diluting operation, and was found to be contradicting Porter's information on the death of Harry Lime.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears after Holly speaks with Lime.
Popescu
Popescu
Played by: Siegfried Breuer
- Adaptational Nationality: Popescu is an American named Cooler in the novella.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the book, Popescu/Cooler is less threatening toward Martins and is also stated as being uninvolved in the diluted penicillin racket. He's still a supplier of black market tires and helps Lime kill Harbin and fake his death, though.
- Affably Evil: Popescu is always polite and well-spoken, even when threatening the life of Holly Martins and Anna Schmidt.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Despite the obvious poverty of everyone else, Popescu is ordering double whiskies and gives Anna a pack of cigarettes.
- The Dragon: For Harry Lime.
- Fat Bastard: He's heavier than most characters.
- Implied Death Threat: He's fond of these, making several, basically telling Martins to back off, unless he wants to get killed.
- Karma Houdini: Since Lime is killed before he could divulge any useful information for the authorities, it is unlikely that Popescu will be apprehended.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never seen again after the disastrous book event hosted by Holly, who flees after seeing two thugs, likely sent after him by Harry Lime.
The Mastermind (spoilers)
Harry Lime
"Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we?"
Played by: Orson Welles
- Arch-Enemy: Harry Lime turns out to be this to Holly Martins.
- Badass Longcoat: Is never seen without his black coat and matching hat. Justified, given the time period.
- Big Bad Friend: Holly is investigating his murder. It turns out that Harry is alive and engaged in horrible crimes. He's the villain of the story.
- The Chessmaster: He runs Vienna like he owns it, and would've gotten away with it, too, had the police not chased and cornered him by spotting him in the open.
- Just to show how good Lime is at this: Joseph Harbin was an orderly who stole penicillin for Lime, defected and went to the authorities. Major Calloway is a By-the-Book Cop investigating Lime as the Ringleader of the operation. Lime kills Harbin and uses Harbin's body as the body they buried at Lime's grave after his supposed accident. Major Calloway closes the case after the death of the ringleader smuggler, assuming Harbin has run away because there is no body, leaving Lime free to smuggling.
- When Harry meets Holly at the Amusement Park, it is Holly who wants to speak with Harry privately. Harry suggest the Ferris Wheel. When Harry and Holly are at the top, we discover that Harry exploited this trope because he wants to deliver an Implied Death Threat to Holly because He Knows Too Much.
- Death by Irony: The ultimate Con Man in Vienna is felled because he cannot imagine his goodhearted former friend (who he had threatened to kill before) would betray his trust to the police..
- Dirty Communists: He works with them, apparently, judging by an off-handed comment that he's worked with the Soviets.
- The Dreaded: Lime appears to have this reputation in Vienna.
- Drugs Are Bad: He doesn't care about this. He leaves hundreds of children sickly, comatose, or dead.
- Down the Drain: Attempts to flee into a sewer near the end. This doesn't work, and he is unceremoniously shot down and killed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with. He doesn't really love Anna, but gets himself killed when he tries to see her.
- Evil Former Friend: To Holly Martins. The latter didn't know of this until arriving in Vienna.
- Evil Pays Better: Money appears to be his main motivation.
- Face Death with Dignity: Wounded and thus unable to make it outside the sewers, he nods at Holly to finish him off. One thunderous gunshot later, and Lime is done for.
- Fallen Hero: The radio drama based off the film reveals Lime to have been an Anti-Hero or an Unscrupulous Hero before becoming a ruthless European drug lord.
- Faking the Dead: Does this to himself.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. Harry's belief in his own greatness and previous success manipulating people means he cannot fathom that he might fail.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's incredibly likable and charismatic, as well as being an amoral war profiteer and murderer who will betray anyone.
- Foil: To Holly Martins.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: He was this with Holly Martins. Emphasis on was.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He started out as a Lovable Rogue, where his schemes while illegal, were mostly harmless — like a gambling den. 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 death he caused.
- Killed Offscreen: His faked and real deaths both occur offscreen.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Inverted. He likes Anna's cat and is the one person the cat likes back, but he's a rotten, vile excuse for a human being.
- Lack of Empathy: He doesn't show any remorse for the victims of his fake penicillin.
- Manipulative Bastard: He constantly uses people (notably Anna and Martins) and will throw them away without a thought when they're no longer useful to him.
- Not Quite Dead: Actually this.
- Not So Stoic: He's not exactly a steely character, but his behavior turns into something very different when he runs from the cops and shoots Sgt. Paine.
- The Only Believer: Dark Example. Everyone in the movie can see Holly is totally naive, Major Calloway wants him out of Vienna as soon as possible, Anna laughs when Holly talks him about love and Crabbin regrets inviting Holly to a conference, but Harry alone has some respect for him in a perverse way. He recognizes Holly as a threat when he realizes the truth and is only stopped from killing him by the knowledge police have already discovered his ruse. In he end, when Harry is finally trapped and wounded, he trust Holly to do him a Mercy Kill.
- Posthumous Character: Not actually this.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He not-so-subtly threatens to throw Martins out of the Ferris wheel, until Martins informs him the police dug up his coffin and know he's alive. Realizing that his secret's out anyway, and it'd be pretty obvious what happened if Martins were to die, he lets him go.
- Shadow Archetype: Harry is a Manipulative Bastard and Holly is his Unwitting Pawn, his Spanner in the Works and The Only Believer. In the last minutes of his life, Harry will be Lured into a Trap by Holly and their roles will swap like an Hourglass Plot.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His faked death sets the plot of the film in motion.
- The Sociopath: Shows no remorse for all of his horrible actions, not even for when he throws an old man out of a window to his death.
- Averted, or at least played with at the end. He's visibly distressed when running from the police, and especially when he feels he has to shoot Sgt. Paine.
- Spanner in the Works: He became one the last minutes of his life when he shoots Sergeant Paine in his effort to escape the trap Holly and Major Calloway had set for him.
- Unwitting Pawn: He becomes one to Holly on the last minutes of his life, because he is incapable of thinking that his Old Friend and Unwitting Pawn Holly could ever resist his charms and betray him to the police..
- Verbal Tic: Constantly calling Holly "old man".
- Villainous Breakdown: He loses his composure and looks visibly distressed when he shoots Paine in the chest while running from the police.
- Walking Spoiler: The reveal that he is in fact, alive and well is the biggest plot development of the movie.
- Wicked Cultured: Played with.
- 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; Swiss people never invented the cuckoo clock. Such a distinction belongs to 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 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.
- Its utter falseness and self-serving nature also reflects Harry Lime perfectly: a self-justifying, brutal, Psychopathic criminal overlord working with a despotic dictatorship. One who sees himself as having his "greatness" confirmed by his ability to exploit the misery and corruption in post-war Vienna to gain power, but whose skill at improvization and exploiting other people hide the fact that he is nowhere near as good as he thinks he and cannot fathom the possibility he might fail.
- Would Hurt a Child: More accurately, "doesn't care if they die horribly in a hospital ward", but that's splitting hairs.
