The Third Man

Rollo Martins, a writer of Western novels, is at loose ends—and trying to escape his tendency to engage in unhappy love affairs, which he calls “incidents.” He has received an invitation from his childhood friend Harry Lime to join him in Vienna to write about the city’s crisis of war refugees and his friend’s work with them. Martins has accepted, even though it’s outside his usual expertise. Lime has financed his journey.

In the Frankfurt airport, a journalist asks Martins if he is Dexter, looking for an interview with a “novelist,” which gives Martins a sense of “pride and importance” (4). As readers learn, the journalist has mistaken Martins for a far more famous British author named Benjamin Dexter because he’s traveling under his pen name, Buck Dexter—which later shapes some of his more comedic adventures abroad.

To Martins’s disappointment, Lime doesn’t come to his hotel to meet him. He receives a message from a man named Crabbin, urging him to stay there, as he has arrived earlier than expected. He ignores this directive, given that Crabbin is a stranger to him, and instead decides to search for Lime. Calloway considers this a testament to Martins’s divided nature: “There was always a conflict in Rollo Martins—between the absurd Christian name and the sturdy Dutch (four generations back) surname” (5). Calloway notes that “Rollo” tended to be impulsive, especially with women, and “Martins” was more prudent.

When he arrives at Lime’s flat, Martins realizes that it’s empty. A neighbor, Herr Koch, confirms his intuitive sense that Lime is dead, telling Martins that his friend was hit by a car a few days earlier. Koch describes how the car “bowled him over in front like a rabbit” (6). This reminds Martins of a childhood incident, when Lime urged Martins to shoot a rabbit and he missed. Koch says that Lime’s funeral is taking place that afternoon.

Deeply upset, Martins hurries to the Central Cemetery to attend the funeral, crossing both the American and Russian occupation zones to reach the British one. The occupying powers have divided even the cemetery, and Martins finds Lime’s Catholic funeral by chance. Calloway recalls that he also attended the funeral and was likely remembered only as a “man in a mackintosh” (7). Martins surprises Calloway by crying upon learning that this is Lime’s funeral. Only one other person at the funeral cries: Lime’s girlfriend, Anna. His curiosity piqued by the sudden new arrival, Calloway pretends to need a ride back to the city—but doesn’t disclose his status as a police officer. As they drive, Martins asks Calloway to take him to a bar and buy him a drink, as he has no money.

In the bar, ordering food on his police expense account, Calloway subtly interrogates Martins. When Martins refers to Lime as his “best friend,” Calloway recalls that “I couldn’t resist saying, knowing what I knew, and because I was anxious to vex him—one learns a lot that way, ‘That sounds like a cheap novelette.’ He said quickly, ‘I write cheap novelettes’” (8). Calloway is unconvinced when Martins reports that he knew Lime better than anyone else, as most of his official police sources feel the same confidence, but all of them know different facets of a person. Martins reminisces about his schooldays with Lime and recalls Lime’s tendency to concoct elaborate schemes, from which he usually escaped without consequences while Martins was less adept and more apt to be punished.

The two men agree about the details of Lime’s biography—a doctor who never worked as one—and about his “patient” temperament. Martins, still naive, whistles some notes he claims were part of an original composition of Lime’s, calling it Lime’s “signature tune” (which in the film is Lime’s recurring theme music). Calloway knows it’s a tune that someone else wrote and popularized but decides not to shatter Martins’s illusion. The collegiality quickly vanishes, however, when Calloway hints that Lime was involved in criminal activities and escaped arrest by dying so soon. Martins utterly rejects this suggestion. When Calloway calls Lime “the worst racketeer who ever made a living in this city” (10), Martins nearly becomes violent, and Calloway wonders if he’s misjudged him. He sees this, too, as a sign of the man’s divided nature, as only his more calculating side—what Calloway calls his “Martins” personality—is a real threat.

Martins asserts that he dislikes the police and points out that Calloway may be implying he too was supposed to become involved in Lime’s enterprise. Calloway agrees, suggesting that Lime may have needed a patsy, just as Martins was in their youth. Martins finds this offensive and asks why the police focus on the black market instead of murder. Calloway suggests that Lime was, in fact, a murderer, and Martins starts to attack him; however, Calloway’s driver grabs him. Calling Calloway a “fool,” Martins vows to avenge Lime’s death by solving the case and proving Lime’s innocence (12).

Calloway tells Martins he should leave Vienna, as he has no money, and that his informants will arrest him if he tries to convert his British pounds and remain. On the way out, Martins tries to hit Calloway again but is struck by Calloway’s driver, who has orders to take him to a hotel.

Calloway admits that Martins did in fact later “prove me to be a fool” and that he learned about some of the following events much later (13). When Martins arrives at the hotel, the clerk asks if he is Mr. Dexter. Assuming that his friend booked him under his pseudonym, Martins confirms this identity. Immediately, a stranger appears, introducing himself as Crabbin. He apologizes for not meeting Martins at the airport, as he believed a prior cable about a trip to Sweden would prevent Dexter’s arrival in Vienna. It becomes clear that, as before, the surname Martins shares with a more well-known author is causing miscommunication. Crabbin praises Dexter as a truly gifted novelist and cites a work that Martins knows isn’t his. Martins doesn’t correct the mistaken identity because Crabbin says he represents the British Cultural Relations Society and mentions that the organization is covering Dexter’s expenses. Martins agrees to headline a literary event in two days. Calloway notes that the novelist whom Crabbin admires is Benjamin Dexter, who is “ranked as a stylist with Henry James” (15).

Martins shocks Crabbin by showing him the injury to his mouth and comparing his quest for vengeance against “Callaghan” (his misnomer for Calloway) to the plot of a Western in which a corrupt sheriff is killed. It turns out that Crabbin knew Harry Lime, though he’s stunned to discover that the great Dexter had friends so far from the literary world. Crabbin mentions that Lime’s girlfriend, Anna, was taking English lessons at the British Cultural Relations Society’s institute. Crabbin tells him that he suspects the young woman is Hungarian although she claims to be Austrian.

Martins goes to his room and falls asleep. He dreams that he’s lost in the woods and sees Lime. The telephone startles him awake. The caller declares that he’s a friend of Lime’s and asks to meet Martins. The speaker, Kurtz, contradicts Martins’s impression that Lime had no last words, claiming that before he died Lime asked Kurtz to look after his old friend. Martins is surprised when Kurtz offers him money—the third person that day to do so—and assures him that he’s not in dire need. They arrange a meeting. Martins ponders the confusing information: the conflicting accounts of Lime’s death, which call into question whether Lime spoke before he died, and why no one contacted him to tell him not to come. These thoughts intensify his desire to solve the mystery surrounding Lime’s death.