I Watch Films: The Third Man

 The Third Man

Holly Martins, an American pulp writer, arrives in occupied Vienna. His old friend Harry Lime has offered him a job. However he learns that Lime was killed by a car while crossing the road. At the funeral he meets Sergeant Paine and Major Calloway, who are amongst the British Army contingent of the police force (a different set of four officers from the four occupying powers make occasional, slightly odd, appearances). Paine is a fan of Martins books; Calloway suggests he leave as soon as possible.

Martins doesn’t leave, being invited to give a talk at a book club. He meets Lime’s friend Kurtz, who tells him about the accident, that he and another friend Popescu saw it and carried Lime to the roadside where before dying he asked them to look after both Martins and Lime’s girlfriend, an actress named Anna Schmidt.

Martins talks to Anna and others and finds different versions of Lime’s death, whether he was able to speak, and a porter says that in addition to Kurtz and Popescu there was a Third Man. However when they go back to confront him the porter is murdered and the locals think Martins did it, chasing him. Going to Calloway with this information Calloway explains his lack of interest and antipathy to Martins; Lime stole penicillin from military hospitals, then sold diluted supplies of the black market, diluted penicillin that failed to treat infections properly leaving many people disabled or dead. Martins agrees to drop it.

However going to confess his feelings for Anna while drunk he sees a mysterious face in the shadows. A flash of light illuminates it and it’s Lime. Martins gives chase but loses him. When Martins tells Calloway they dig up the coffin and find that it is not Lime, but a hospital orderly who worked for him. Anna is Czech and on a forged passport; due to be deported to the Soviet sector Calloway instead detains and questions her. He realises that Lime is using the sewers to make his way around.

Martins asks Kurtz to see Lime and they meet on the big wheel of Vienna (Wiener Reisenrad). Martins asks Lime to explain, and Lime is dismissive. There’s chaos and poverty and war, and that makes opportunities. Lime suggests that Martins is the only thing that might stop him, but Martins tells him the authorities know about the false burial. Lime offers him the job again, then leaves. Calloway asks Martins to turn Lime in and he agrees, in return for them letting Anna go. This final confrontation is not so simple though.

Watch This: Classic twisty noir thriller, with some dark paranoid scenes and excellent setpieces
Don’t Watch This: Meandering pursuit of a man though picturesque city