The Third Man recap

Rollo Martins arrives in occupied Vienna to work for his old friend Harry Lime and learns that Harry has supposedly died in a road accident. British policeman Colonel Calloway says Harry was a black-market criminal, but conflicting witness accounts lead Martins to investigate. A porter mentions an unidentified third man and is then killed. Martins eventually sees Harry alive and learns that the death was staged. Calloway shows him that Harry's ring stole penicillin, diluted it, and sold it to hospitals, leaving patients dead or gravely harmed. After meeting an unrepentant Harry, Martins helps the police set a trap despite the anger of Harry's lover, Anna Schmidt. Harry escapes into the sewers, kills Sergeant Paine, and is wounded; Martins fires the fatal shot. At Harry's second funeral Anna walks away, but Martins follows and catches her. They leave together, with their future unresolved.

Colonel Calloway, a British military policeman, recounts the arrival of Rollo Martins in divided postwar Vienna. Martins is an English writer of cheap Westerns who has been promised work by his old school friend Harry Lime. Instead of meeting Harry, he learns that Lime has just died after being struck by a vehicle outside his apartment. Martins reaches the funeral with no money and no clear purpose in the city. Calloway tells him that Harry was involved in serious black-market crime, an accusation Martins rejects as a policeman's mistake about the generous, entertaining friend he remembers. His loyalty turns a bleak visit into an informal attempt to clear Harry's name.

Rollo Martins arrives in Vienna expecting employment from Harry Lime but finds Harry newly buried and accused by Colonel Calloway of black-market crimes. Refusing to believe the charge, Martins questions the people connected to the reported accident. Baron Kurtz and Doctor Winkel offer an account in which Harry was struck in the street and promptly carried away by friends. Anna Schmidt, Harry's grieving lover, also has reasons to resist the authorities' picture of him. The porter at Harry's building remembers the scene differently: he says an unidentified third man helped move the body. The mismatch convinces Martins that the death was not the simple accident everyone describes and that Harry's associates are concealing something.

Martins continues investigating the contradictions around Harry Lime's death, especially the porter's report of a third man absent from the other witnesses' statements. Before the porter can give a full account to the authorities, he is killed, and Martins's inquiries attract suspicion. Then, at night, Martins catches sight of a familiar face in a doorway and recognizes Harry himself. Harry vanishes before he can be stopped, but the sighting proves that the funeral and accident were staged. The mysterious third man was not merely another witness: it was the supposedly dead Harry Lime. Martins must now reconsider both his defense of his friend and the motives of everyone who helped create the false death.

After discovering that Harry is alive, Martins receives the evidence behind Calloway's investigation. Harry's organization stole penicillin intended for military hospitals, diluted it, and sold it through the black market. The weakened medicine caused deaths and severe injury, including among children. Martins can no longer treat the case as a harmless scheme pursued by an unfair police force. He meets Harry, who shows little concern for the anonymous victims and treats human lives as figures in a calculation. The encounter destroys Martins's remaining belief that personal loyalty can excuse what Harry has done. Anna still loves Harry and depends on false papers connected to him, so any move against him will also feel to her like a betrayal. Martins nevertheless agrees to cooperate with Calloway in bringing Harry out of hiding.

Rollo Martins comes to Vienna for Harry Lime, investigates Harry's staged death, and learns that his old friend led a racket selling stolen, diluted penicillin whose victims included sick children. After meeting an unrepentant Harry, Martins helps Colonel Calloway arrange a trap. Harry detects the danger and flees into the city's sewers, where the police pursue him. He kills Sergeant Paine during the chase but is wounded and cornered before he can escape. Martins reaches him and fires the final shot, ending both the pursuit and Harry's criminal operation. Harry is buried again. Anna Schmidt, who sees Martins's cooperation as betrayal, leaves the funeral without him. Martins waits, then follows and catches up to her; in the novella's closing scene they walk away together, though Calloway leaves the future of their relationship uncertain.

Martins agrees to help Calloway trap Harry after seeing the human cost of the stolen, diluted penicillin, although Anna regards his cooperation as a betrayal. Harry recognizes the danger at the meeting place and escapes into Vienna's sewer system. Police pursue him underground. During the chase Harry kills Sergeant Paine, one of the few people in Vienna who treated Martins with uncomplicated kindness. Harry is wounded and unable to escape; Martins reaches his old friend and fires the final shot rather than leave him suffering or allow the pursuit to continue. Harry is buried for a second time. After the funeral Anna initially walks away from Martins, still grieving and unable to forgive what he did. In the novella's more open closing movement, Martins follows and catches up with her, and the two walk on together. Calloway cannot say what future, if any, that shared walk gives them, while Harry's death closes the immediate case.