Screenplay: The Third Man

Overview
Graham Greene's screenplay for The Third Man unfolds as a tight, morally complex noir about friendship and betrayal set against a ruined, occupied Vienna. The story follows Holly Martins, a naive American writer who arrives expecting an easy job from an old friend, only to find that friend dead and the city split into sectors of suspicion and compromise. The narrative moves from curiosity to horror as layers of criminality and moral relativism are peeled back.

Plot
Holly Martins answers a job offer from Harry Lime but finds Lime apparently killed in a mysterious accident. Determined to learn the truth, Martins navigates through the black-market underworld, military bureaucracy, and a grieving circle of acquaintances. His investigation reveals that Lime, far from being the harmless rogue Martins imagined, is implicated in a profitable and deadly racket that adulterated penicillin, causing the deaths of sick children.
Martins' pursuit culminates in a startling encounter when he discovers that Lime is alive. The two meet in Vienna's shadowy sewer system, where Lime delivers a famous, chilling rationalization of his actions and the moral chaos of the postwar world. A chase through the city's subterranean corridors follows, and Lime's fate is sealed soon afterward, leaving Martins to grapple with the consequences of truth, loyalty, and the cost of revealing what he has learned.

Characters
Holly Martins functions as the audience's moral center: an ordinary, somewhat gullible man whose faith in friendship blindspots his judgment until evidence forces a reckoning. Harry Lime is charismatic, cunning, and morally corrosive, his charm masks a willingness to profit from human suffering and to reframe horror as efficient business. Anna Schmidt embodies tragic devotion; her love for Lime makes her a figure of heartbreaking denial and loyalty, complicating Martins' ethical dilemma.
Major Calloway and the occupying authorities represent institutional attempts to impose order in a fragmented city. Their pragmatic, sometimes cold presentation of the case contrasts with Martins' emotional investment and highlights different responses to atrocity and accountability.

Setting and Atmosphere
Postwar Vienna is a character in its own right: a city of ruined buildings, shadowy alleys, and checkpointed streets where alliances are temporary and trust is scarce. Greene's dialogue and scene construction lean into the disorienting landscape of a metropolis occupied by victors and victims alike. The screenplay uses fog, fragmented architecture, and the claustrophobic sense of a city still under repair to amplify suspense and moral ambiguity.
A persistent tone of melancholy and irony pervades the narrative. The elegant surfaces of Viennese social life mask a fractured ethical order, and the story continually balances dark humor with devastating consequence.

Themes
The Third Man examines betrayal, the elasticity of moral language, and the ways charm can disguise corruption. It interrogates whether charisma absolves culpability, and whether loyalty to a person can, and should, survive the revelation of monstrous deeds. The screenplay also reflects on the moral bankruptcy that can follow war: profiteering, blurred jurisdiction, and a populace forced to negotiate survival amid collapsed institutions.
Another central theme is the cost of truth. Martins must decide whether exposing Lime will protect future victims at the cost of destroying Anna's last illusions. That dilemma forces a meditation on personal responsibility in the face of systemic wrongdoing.

Legacy
Greene's screenplay combines taut plotting with philosophical bite, producing a story that endures as both a suspenseful detective yarn and a meditation on postwar ethics. Its memorable set pieces, the meeting in the sewers, Lime's corrosive monologue, and the melancholy aftermath, have become touchstones of classic noir, keeping the tale relevant as an exploration of friendship, moral compromise, and the human capacity for self-justification.