History Characters / TheThirdMan

* DeadSidekick: He got run over by a car in Vienna.

* KilledOffscreen: His death happens offscreen.

* IdiotBall: Holly catchs and holds every single idiot ball this movie throws at him, except when his OldFriend makes an ImpliedDeathThreat on a Ferris Wheel and [[CharacterDevelopment when Anna passes him at the cemetery and he doesn't follow her]].

-> '''Played by:''' Wilfrid Hyde-White

->'''Played by:''' Creator/JosephCotten

* BlatantLies: Claims he is only Lime's "medical adviser," and offers information that contradicts that of Porter.

* NiceHat: Is rarely seen without one.

* NiceHat: He wears a military beret and a fedora at times.

* DrugsAreBad: He doesn't care about this. He kills and leaves hundreds of ''children'' sickly or even catatonic.

* PaperThinDisguise: His masquerade fails to deceive [[FatBastard Popescu]], [[ThoseTwoBadGuys "Baron" Kurtz and Dr. Winkel.]]

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Is seen laughing it up with "Baron" Kurtz.

* BadassMustache: Downplayed; Calloway sports a fashionable, thin, and tasteful mustache.

[[caption-width-right:350: ...*{{Beat}}*... '''V'''[[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY inkel]] [[note]]German pronunciation, making it a “V”, not a “W”[[/note]] ]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[NotSoDifferent "Nobody thinks in terms of human beings.]] [[TheGovernment Governments don't.]] [[AboveGoodAndEvil Why should we?"]]]]

->'''Played by:''' Bernard Lee

*** Its utter falseness and self-serving nature also reflects Harry Lime perfectly: a self-justifying, brutal, [[TheSociopath 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 improization and exploiting other people hide the fact that [[[[PrideBeforeAFall he is nowhere near as good as he thinks he and cannot fathom the possibility he might fail.]]

* TheOnlyBeliever: 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 whby the knowledge police have already discovered his ruse, and when finally trapped and wounded Harry is trapped and wounded, he trust Holly to do him a MercyKill.

* DeatByIrony: The ultimate ConMan 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..

* AffablyEvil: He's incredibly likable and charismatic, as well as being an amoral war profiteer and murderer.

* TheOnlyBeliever: 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 when Harry is trapped and wounded, he trust Holly to do him a MercyKill.

* UnwittingPawn: He becomes one to Holly on the last minutes of his life, because he is incapable of thinking that his OldFriend and UnwittingPawn Holly can ever betray him.

* ConspicuousConsumption: With the obvious poverty of everyone else, Popescu is ordering double whiskies and gives Anna a pack of cigarettes.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: He started out as a LovableRogue, where his schemes while illegal, were mostly harmless -- like a gambling den.'Then he stole penicillin from q military hospital, watered it down to the point it became worthless and sold it on the black market, indifferent to death he caused.

[[folder:Spoiler Character]]

->'''Played by:''' [[spoiler:Creator/OrsonWelles]]

* AffablyEvil: He's incredibly likable and charismatic, as well as being an amoral war profiteer and murderer]].
* ArchEnemy: [[spoiler:Harry Lime turns out to be this to Holly Martins.]]

* TheChessmaster: He runs UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} like he owns it, and [[spoiler:would've gotten away with it, too, had the police not chased and cornered him by spotting him in the open]].

* DownTheDrain: [[spoiler:Attempts to flee into a sewer near the end. This doesn't work, and he is unceremoniously shot down and killed.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played with. He doesn't really love [[spoiler:Anna]], but [[spoiler:gets himself killed when he tries to see her]].
* EvilFormerFriend: [[spoiler:To Holly Martins.]] The latter didn't know of this until arriving in Vienna.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Wounded and thus unable to make it outside the sewers, [[spoiler:he nods at Holly to finish him off. One thunderous gunshot later, and Lime is done for]].
* FallenHero: The radio drama based off the film reveals Lime to have been an AntiHero or an UnscrupulousHero before [[spoiler:becoming a ruthless European drug lord]].
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Does this to himself.]]

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:His faked and real deaths]] both occur offscreen.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: He started out as a LovableRogue, where his schemes while illegal, were mostly harmless -- like a gambling den. [[spoiler: Then he stole penicillin from q military hospital, watered it down to the point it became worthless and sold it on the black market, indifferent to death he caused.]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Actually this.]]
* NotSoStoic: He's not exactly a steely character, but his behavior turns into something ''very'' different [[spoiler:when he runs from the cops and shoots Sgt. Paine]].

* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler:Not actually this.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: His [[spoiler:faked]] death sets the plot of the film in motion.
* TheSociopath: Shows no remorse for all of his horrible actions, not even for when he [[spoiler:throws an old man out of a window to his death]].
** Averted, or at least played with at the end. [[spoiler:He's visibly distressed when running from the police, and especially when he feels he has to shoot Sgt. Paine.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: He loses his composure and looks visibly distressed when [[spoiler:he shoots Paine in the chest while running from the police]].
* WalkingSpoiler: The reveal that [[spoiler:he is in fact, alive and well]] is the biggest plot development of the movie.

* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:Runs from the authorities at the end, but this doesn't save him.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: He nods at Holly to [[spoiler:finish him off once he's critically injured, and has no chance to escape]].

* BreakTheHaughty: Holly is a belligerent, stubborn, and disorderly man who [[spoiler:brings Harry Lime to justice]] but is left profoundly changed and possibly traumatized after all that he saw, and after all the times he [[spoiler:narrowly avoided being murdered]].

* PetTheDog: He 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 prescence, which leads to a chase, Sergeant Paine's death, and Harry Lime's unceremonious execution]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: He 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]].

* DamnedByAFoolsPraise: Just look at the dialogue captioning his picture.

** When Harry meets Holly at the AmusementPark, it is Holly who wants to speak with Harry privately. Harry suggest the [[FerrisWheelDateMoment Ferris Wheel.]] When Harry and Holly are at the top, we discover that Harry exploited this trope because he wants to deliver Holly an ImpliedDeathThreat menacing him with a DisneyDeath because HeKnowsTooMuch.
* CoupDeGrace[=/=]MercyKill: [[spoiler:Wordlessly asks this of Holly near the end, with Holly complying and shooting him dead in a sewer.]]
* 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 [[ComingOfAgeStory chose that exact time to become an adult]].
* DisneyVillainDeath: Oddly, this seems to be his favorite method of disposing of people. [[spoiler:Holly]] almost went out this way, and the [[spoiler:old man]] who [[HeKnowsTooMuch got involved]] actually died like this.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse[=/=]HeKnowsTooMuch: Lime nearly kills [[spoiler:Holly Martins]] because he knew of his illegal actions.
* KickTheDog: Lime shoots the relatively harmless [[spoiler:[[NiceGuy Sergeant Paine]]]] when the poor sap stumbles towards him.

* 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.

* 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]].
** Even if Lime didn't [[spoiler:kill Porter himself,]] the poor man's death is still an example.
** 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.
** He also [[spoiler:just shoots Paine when he stumbles out in front of him]].
** And to be perfectly consistent, when he is trapped in Vienna's sewers, he agrees to Holly's [[spoiler: MercyKill]].

* RevolversAreJustBetter: Lime prefers a small, concealable revolver over the clumsy [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter sawed-off]], unwieldy [[CoolGuns/AssaultRifles assault rifle]], or the cumbersome [[CoolGuns/{{Rifles}} 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]].

* WateringDown: He dilutes penicillin to the point it [[spoiler:is almost totally worthless, even fatal]].
* WeCanRuleTogether: Tries to convince Holly to join him, along with [[spoiler:Anna]].

* {{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.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:See BigBadFriend.]]

->'''Played by:''' [[Creator/JosephCotten Joseph Cotten]]

* BookDumb: Not knowing who or what Creator/JamesJoyce was, and not being informed of what literary components he uses in his cheap novelettes, he is literally book dumb.

* ClassicalAntiHero: He wants to solve the mystery of his best friend's death and bring justice to the world. However, he's overly idealistic and is a ManChild and a IdiotHero, though he does grow wiser at the end of the film.

* TheOnlyBeliever: Everyone, including Anna, Harry's lover, believes immediately that he is capable of smuggling peniciline and killing children, Holly is the only one who has trouble believing his OldFriend could do that.
* PaperThinDisguise: His masquerade fails to deceive those such as [[FatBastard Popescu]], [[ThoseTwoBadGuys "Baron" Kurtz and Dr. Winkel.]]
* ShadowArchetype: Harry is a ManipulativeBastard and Holly is his UnwittingPawn, his SpannerInTheWorks and his TheOnlyBeliever. In the last minutes of his life, Harry will be LuredIntoATrap by Holly and their roles will swap like an HourglassPlot.

->'''Played by:''' [[Creator/TrevorHoward Trevor Howard]]

[[caption-width-right:350: [[DamnedByAFoolsPraise That's what I like about them]] [[note]]( [[AirportNovel Holly Martin's Western Novels]])[[/note]], sir. [[SoOkayItsAverage You can pick them up and put them down any time.]] ]]
* AscendedFanboy: He likes Holly Martin's books, and his sincere admiration for him is the cause Holly Martins manages to stay in Viena, [[SpannerInTheWorks frustrating]] [[ThresholdGuardian Major Calloway desire to send Holly home as soon as posible]] and allowing [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Holly to initiate his investigation]]:
--> ''Holly Martins, sir? The writer? The author of "Death at the Double X Ranch? I'm so glad to have met you, sir. I've read quite a few of your books. I like a good [[TheWestern western]]. [[LowestCommonDenominator That's what I like about]] [[AirportNovel them]], sir. [[SoOkayItsAverage You can pick them up and put them down any time]]."

* LowestCommonDenominator: He is a AscendedFanboy of Holly Martin's books, of TheWestern genre, filled with BlackAndWhiteMorality, StrictlyFormula plots and CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority. The movie shows Sargent Paine as a KindheartedSimpleton unaware that [[ThresholdGuardian Major Calloway wants to send Holly home as soon as posible]] and the reason he likes Holly books are also a denounce to his writing:
--> [[DamnedByAFoolsPraise That's what I like about them]] [[note]]( [[AirportNovel Holly Martin's Western Novels]])[[/note]], sir. [[SoOkayItsAverage You can pick them up and put them down any time.]]
* KindheartedSimpleton: He is a NiceGuy, 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 TheWestern is a genre directed at the LowestCommonDenominator, and presents Holly with the means to stay some days more in Viena, unaware of the desire of his superior, [[ThresholdGuardian Major Calloway, to send Holly home as soon as posible]].

* SpannerInTheWorks / UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: His admiration for Holly Martin's westerns drive him to introduce Martins to Crabbin, allowing Martins to stay in Viena, frustrating [[ThresholdGuardian Major Calloway desire to send Holly home as soon as posible]] and allowing [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Holly to initiate his investigation, that would end with two innocents dead, including Paine]]:

* TheEnforcer: [[spoiler:For Harry Lime.]]

** 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. [[SarcasmMode Gee, what could have happened to him?]]

* TheOnlyBeliever: Everyone in the movie can see Holly is a Manchild, Major Calloway wants him out ot Vienna as soon as possible, Anna laughs when Holly talks him about love and Crabbin regrets inviting Holly to a conference, but when Harry is trapped and wounded, he trust Holly to do him a MercyKill.

* ShadowArchetype: Harry is a ManipulativeBastard and Holly is his UnwittingPawn, his SpannerInTheWorks and his TheOnlyBeliever. In the last minutes of his life, Harry will be LuredIntoATrap by Holly and their roles will swap like an HourglassPlot.

* SpannerInTheWorks: He became one the last minutes of his life when he shoots Sargeant Paine in his effort to escape the trap Holly and Major Calloway had set for him.

* VillainousBreakdown: He loses his compusure and looks visibly distressed when [[spoiler:he shoots Paine in the chest while running from the police]].

* TookALevelInCynic: How could he ''not'' by the end of the movie?

* BestFriend: To [[TheProtagonist Holly Martins.]]

* PetTheDog: He looks out for [[TheProtagonist 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 prescence, which leads to a chase, Sergeant Paine's death, and Harry Lime's unceremonious execution]].

* ShooOutTheClowns: He's [[spoiler:shot dead by [[BigBad Harry Lime]] right before [[TheProtagonist Holly]] executes Lime]].