History Film / TheThirdMan

** Moreover, for hundreds of years, the Swiss were not only at war with one another, but their main export was The Swiss Guard, some of the finest mercenaries Europe had ever seen, who still serve as the Pope's personal bodyguards to this day.

* 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]]. Calloway and Paine also carry Webley service revolvers.

* HumansAreInsects: Harry Lime reveals his thoughts on humanity to Holly from atop the Vienna Ferris wheel while looking down upon the park visitors: "Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if one of those... dots... stopped living forever?" Seems Harry's got a touch of Nazi genocide fever. Class A ChaoticEvil — a calculating and intelligent villain with a wistful smile that marks the musings of a psychopath.

* HappilyEverBefore:
** Inverted in an odd way -- Graham Greene's novel, written at the same time as the screenplay, has a moderately happy ending.
** A double inversion, actually. Producer David O. Selznick, who was known for happy Hollywood-style endings, insisted upon the bleak DidNotGetTheGirl finale, even though screenwriter Greene, whose writing style was known for being [[CrapsackWorld incredibly depressing]], originally intended to have the movie end with Anna embracing Holly after the funeral.

** To avoid crossing the MoralEventHorizon of allowing Harry to continue with his penicillin racket, Holly Martins has to cross his a lesser horizon by betraying Harry to the police.

** To help Vienna get [[BlackMarketProduce needed supplies]], a BlackMarket is established. This helps the Viennese population...but only the ones that can afford it, prompting KillThePoor. Then some smugglers get [[{{Greed}} greedy]] and, realizing the BlackMarket has a limited window of time before it definitively disappears, decide to maximize gains by dilluting penicillin. This results in KillThemAll.

* FatalAttraction: A rare male example: Holly arrives in Europe to discover that the man he's come to see is dead, and the police were investigating him. He spends the movie convinced that Harry must have been innocent, and was the victim of some underhanded police conspiracy. He learns later that [[spoiler:not only is the man ''still'' alive, but he's an amoral ManipulativeBastard, responsible for everything the police believed him to be]].

* JobTitle

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Unsubtitled German dialog is famously used in order to emphasize how totally out of his depth Martins is when he visits Vienna.
** It also serves to show the EndOfAnAge: Europe has ended the GenteelInterbellumSetting, survived UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust and everyone has the uncomfortable sensation of BlueAndOrangeMorality. This is the dawning of the era of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in Europe: the languages that will be spoken by the people who really count would be English and Russian.
* RedHerring: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's [[SlouchOfVillainy slouching against]] a [[DueToTheDead tombstone]] on the ''Zentralfriedhof'', sporting a pencil moustache, a [[EvilBrit smarmy English accent]] and a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora covering a VillainousWidowsPeak. He ''could'' be a BigBad straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.

* EmbarrassingSlide: Captain Calloway is about to show Martins a slide about incriminating evidence that [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] willingly caused the deaths of countless penicillin recipients by watering it down. Instead... he accidentally shows an educational slide of an elephant intended for the Anglo-Austrian re-education programme.

* RedHerring: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's slouching against a tombstone on the ''Zentralfriedhof'', sporting a pencil moustache, a [[EvilBrit smarmy English accent]] and a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora covering a VillainousWidowsPeak. He ''could'' be a BigBad straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.

*** Of course, [[FridgeBrilliance this makes more sense]] when you remember [[TheSociopath what]] the speaker is: a ConMan,[[ConsummateLiar Shameless Liar]], and [[LackOfEmpathy psychopathic murderer]] that has come to exploit Vienna as a [[TheDon Criminal Mastermind]] cooperating with [[RedsWithRockets a despotic tyranny.]] [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] is a confident, charming monster gifted at [[IndyPloy improvisation]] and manipulating people but whose friendliness is skin deep and knowledge is only a bit deeper. He is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is [[spoiler: and dies from overestimating his knowledge of others.]]

-->'''Opening narrator:''' '' But, well, you know, they can't stay the course [[FriendInTheBlackMarket like a professional.]]''

** It also serves to show the EndOfAnAge: Europe has ended the GenteelInterbellumSetting, survived UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust and everyone has the uncomfortable sensation of BlueAndOrangeMorality. From now on, the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in Europe the languages that will be speaked for the people that counts would be English and Russian.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Dr. '''Winkel'''[[note]]German pronunciation, making it a “V”, not a “W”[[/note]], not Winkle.
-->'''Martins:''' (...) Is it possible that his death might have been not accidental? Could he... could he have been pushed, Dr. Winkle?\\
'''Dr. Winkel:''' ...*{{Beat}}*... '''''V'''''inkel. I cannot give an opinion.

''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British FilmNoir set in post-war Vienna, directed by Creator/CarolReed from a story by Creator/{{Graham Greene|Author}} and starring Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/AlidaValli, Creator/TrevorHoward, and Creator/OrsonWelles.

* RedHerring: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's slouching against a tombstone on the ''Zentralfriedhof'', sporting a pencil moustache, a [[EvilBrit smarmy English accent]] and a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora. He ''could'' be a BigBad straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.

* 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]].

-->'''Calloway''': ''(to his subordinate)'' Oh, Paine...

* RedHerring: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's slouching against a tombstone on the ''Zentralfriedhof'', wearing a pencil moustache and a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora. He ''could'' be a BigBad straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.

* RedHerring: The first time we see Captain Calloway, he's slouching against a tombstone on the ''Zentralfriedhof'' and wearing a black leather trenchcoat with a black fedora. He ''could'' be straight out of one of Holly's cheap novelettes... but he later proves to be the OnlySaneMan.

** The front of Lime's apartment building has a graffito of the circle + three slashes symbol used by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Front Iron Front]], a 1930s paramilitary arm of the German Social Democratic Party aligned against monarchists, Stalinists, and the Nazis as well as its Austrian pendant, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republikanischer_Schutzbund Republikanischer Schutzbund]].

** The front of Lime's apartment building has a graffito of the circle + three slashes symbol used by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Front Iron Front]], a 1930s paramilitary arm of the German Social Democratic Party aligned against monarchists, Stalinists, and the Nazis.

Down-on-his-luck American writer Holly Martins (Cotten) arrives in postwar Vienna to meet with an OldFriend, Harry Lime (Welles), who has offered him a job. Unfortunately, the day Martins arrives, he finds out that Lime is dead.

** Lime's apartment is stated to be in the ''Stiftgasse''. This is a real street, but looks nothing like the one depicted in the movie; those scenes were filmed by the ''Hofburg,'' the imperial city palace, on ''Josephsplatz'' (which is also why there is a statue of Joseph II to begin with).
** In one scene, Holly chases [[spoiler:Harry]] from Anna's apartment on the iconic ''Mölker Bastei'' to the ''Hof'' in the mere blink of an eye. In actuality, it would have taken him half a kilometre (or 1500 feet).

** Lime's apartment is stated to be in the ''Stiftgasse''. This is a real street, but looks nothing like the one depicted in the movie; those scenes were filmed in one of the courtyards of the ''Hofburg,'' the imperial city palace.
** In one scene, Holly chases [[spoiler:Harry]] from Anna's apartment on the iconic ''Mölker Bastei'' to the ''Hof'' in the mere blink of an eye. In actuality, it would have taken him half a kilometre (or 1500 feet).

** In one scene, Holly chases [[spoiler:Harry]] from Anna's apartment on the iconic ''Mölker Bastei'' to the ''Hof'' in the mere blink of an eye. In actuality, it would have taken him half a kilometre (or 1500 feet).
** The foot chase in the climax starts out among the rubble of the ''Hoher Markt'', and ends up, mere seconds later, at a sewer entrance on ''Karlsplatz''. Those two locations are a kilometre and a half (roughly a mile) apart.

*** Of course, [[FridgeBrilliance this makes more sense]] when you remember [[TheSociopath what]] the speaker is: a ConMan,[[ConsummateLiar Shameless Liar]], and [[LackOfEmpathy psychopathic murderer]] that has come to exploit Vienna as a [[TheDon Criminal Mastermind]] cooperating with [[RedsWithRockets a despotic tyranny.]] [[spoiler: Harry Lime]] is a confident, charming monster gifted at [[IndyPloy improvisation]] and manipulating people but whose friendliness is skin deep and knowledge is only a bit deeper. He is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is [[spoiler: and dies from overestimating his knowledge of others.]|