The Third Man

by Robbo

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Posted on 9 July 2021

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Rating -

Holly Martins, an American author of western fiction, arrives in post–Second World War Vienna (which has been divided between the Allies: the Americans, British, French, and Soviets) seeking his childhood friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job.

Martins is told that Lime was killed by a car while crossing the street. At Lime’s funeral, Martins meets two British Royal Military Police: Sergeant Paine, a fan of Martins’s books, and his superior, Major Calloway.

He then meets a friend of Lime’s, “Baron” Kurtz, who tells Martins that he and another friend, a Romanian called Popescu, carried Lime to the side of the street after the accident. Before he died, Lime asked them to take care of Martins and Lime’s girlfriend, actress Anna Schmidt.

Martins goes to the theatre to meet Anna, quickly becoming suspicious that Lime’s death was not an accident. Anna’s second-hand account of the fatal accident that Lime’s doctor just happened to be passing by and that he was run over by his own driver just seemed too hard for Martins to believe; even Anna thinks Lime’s death may not have been an accident.

The porter at Lime’s apartment building says that Lime was killed immediately and that three men carried the body, not two. The porter offers to give Martins more information, but someone kills him before Martins can talk to him.

Calloway again advises Martins to leave Vienna, but Martins refuses and demands that Lime’s death be investigated. Calloway reveals that Lime’s racket was stealing penicillin from military hospitals, diluting it, then selling it on the black market, injuring or killing many. Martins, once convinced, agrees to leave.

Martins visits Anna that evening, learning that she has also been told through Calloway about Lime’s crimes. Leaving her apartment, Martins notices someone hiding and watching from a darkened doorway. A shaft of light reveals the person to be Lime. Ignoring Martins’s calls, Lime flees and vanishes. Martins summons Calloway, who deduces that Lime has escaped through the sewers. The British police exhume Lime’s coffin and discover that the body is that of the orderly who stole the penicillin for Lime. Anna is about to be ordered to the Soviet sector and is questioned once again by Calloway.

The next day, Martins meets Lime and they ride Vienna’s Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad. Lime obliquely threatens Martins, reveals the full extent of his ruthlessness and then reiterates his job offer before leaving quickly. Calloway then asks Martins to help capture Lime to which Martins agrees.

Lime arrives at a small cafe to rendezvous with Martins, where Anna warns Lime that the police are closing in. He tries once again to escape using the sewer tunnels, but the police are there in force.

The atmospheric use of black-and-white expressionist cinematography by Robert Krasker, with harsh lighting and distorted “Dutch angle” camera technique, is a major feature of The Third Man.

Combined with the iconic theme music, seedy locations and acclaimed performances from the cast, the style evokes the atmosphere of an exhausted, cynical post-war Vienna at the start of the Cold War.

This atmospheric thriller is one of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema, and boasts iconic performances from Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles.

There is absolutely nothing negative I can say about this film and is on my top 10 films of all time.

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