The Third Man

Arriving in Vienna, Holly Martins learns that his friend Harry Lime, who has invited him, recently died in a car accident.

• Director:Carol Reed
• Genre:Mystery | Thriller
• Runtime:105 minutes

Cast

Joseph Cotten : Holly Martins
Alida Valli : Anna Schmidt (as Valli)
Orson Welles : Harry Lime
Trevor Howard : Major Calloway
Bernard Lee : Sergeant Paine

Austria’s capital city Vienna, devastated and recovering from the Second World War, is divided into four separate zones, each governed by one of the victorious Allies, and a jointly-administered international zone. American pulp Western author Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives seeking an old friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), who has offered him the opportunity to work with him in Vienna.

Arriving at Lime’s apartment, Martins discovers that Lime has been recently killed by a lorry while crossing the street. Shocked, he heads to the cemetery to attend Lime’s funeral, where he meets two British Army Royal Military Policemen: Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), a fan of Martins’s books, and his superior, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard). After the services, Martins accepts an invitation to speak to the members of a local book club, delaying his departure to do so. He is contacted by a friend of Lime’s, Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch), who wants to talk about Lime’s death. Kurtz relates that he and Popescu (Siegfried Breuer), another friend of Lime’s, had picked Lime up after the accident and brought him over to the side of the street, where before dying he had asked them to take care of Martins and Anna (Alida Valli), Lime’s actress girlfriend. Kurtz mentions the theatre Anna works in, but advises that the case is pointless to pursue and best left.

Martins heads to Anna’s workplace and meets with her. During their conversation, he becomes suspicious and wonders if Lime’s death had really been an accident. The porter at Lime’s apartment house (Paul Hoerbiger) tells Martins that Lime could not possibly have been alive after being hit by the lorry, “not with the way his head was,” and adds that he saw a third man helping to carry the body across the street, not just two as Kurtz and Popescu had said. Martins pressures the porter to tell his story to the police, but the man refuses, becoming agitated, and asks Martins to leave. Read more

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