The Third Man (1949)

Joseph Cotten: Holly Martins

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Quotes 

• Holly Martins : Have you ever seen any of your victims?

  Harry Lime : You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays.

• Harry Lime : Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it's the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I.

  Holly Martins : You used to believe in God.

  Harry Lime : Oh, I still do believe in God, old man. I believe in God and Mercy and all that. But the dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here, poor devils.

• Maj. Calloway : Go home Martins, like a sensible chap. You don't know what you're mixing in, get the next plane.

  Holly Martins : As soon as I get to the bottom of this, I'll get the next plane.

  Maj. Calloway : Death's at the bottom of everything, Martins. Leave death to the professionals.

  Holly Martins : Mind if I use that line in my next Western?

• Holly Martins : I was going to stay with him, but he died Thursday.

  Crabbin : Goodness, that's awkward.

  Holly Martins : Is that what you say to people after death? "Goodness, that's awkward?"

• Maj. Calloway : I told you to go away, Martins. This isn't Santa Fe. I'm not a sheriff and you aren't a cowboy. You've been blundering around with the worst bunch of racketeers in Vienna, your precious Harry's friends, and now you're wanted for murder.

  Holly Martins : Put down drunk and disorderly too.

  Maj. Calloway : I have.

• Holly Martins : I guess nobody really knew Harry like he did... like I did.

  Maj. Calloway : How long ago?

  Holly Martins : Back in school. I was never so lonesome in my life until he showed up.

  Maj. Calloway : When did you see him last?

  Holly Martins : September, '39.

  Maj. Calloway : When the business started?

  Holly Martins : Um, hmm.

  Maj. Calloway : See much of him before that?

  Holly Martins : Once in a while. Best friend I ever had.

  Maj. Calloway : That sounds like a cheap novelette.

  Holly Martins : Well, I write cheap novelettes.

• Holly Martins : Listen, Callahan!

  Maj. Calloway : Calloway. I'm English, not Irish.

• Holly Martins : When he was 14, he taught me the three-card trick. That's growing up fast.

  Anna Schmidt : He never grew up. The world grew up around him, that's all.

• Holly Martins : [to Anna]  I'd make comic faces... and stand on my head and grin at you between my legs... and tell all sorts of jokes. I wouldn't stand a chance, would I?

• Holly Martins : Oh, Anna, why do we always... have to quarrel?

  Anna Schmidt : If you want to sell your services, I'm not willing to be the price. I loved him. You loved him. What good have we done him? Love. Look at yourself.They have a name for faces like that.

• Holly Martins : Who was the third man?

• Anna Schmidt : We're both in it, Harry.

  Holly Martins : Holly!

  Anna Schmidt : l'm so sorry.

  Holly Martins : lt's all right. You might get my name right.

  Anna Schmidt : You know, you ought to find yourself a girl.

• Popescu : Can l ask, is Mr. Martins engaged on a new book?

  Holly Martins : Yes. lt's called, "The Third Man".

  Popescu : A novel, Mr. Martins?

  Holly Martins : lt's a murder story. l've just started it. lt's based on fact.

• Popescu : l'd say you were doing something pretty dangerous this time.

  Holly Martins : Yeah?

  Popescu : Mixing fact and fiction.

  Holly Martins : Should l make it all fact?

  Popescu : Why, no, Mr. Martins. l'd say stick to fiction. Straight fiction.

• [last lines] 

  Maj. Calloway : Be sensible, Martins.

  Holly Martins : l haven't got a sensible name, Calloway.

• Holly Martins : l'm just a hack writer who drinks too much and - falls in love with girls. You.

  Anna Schmidt : Me?

• Crabbin : Hello, Mr. Martins! I've been trying to reach you at your hotel. I've arranged the lecture for tomorrow.

  Holly Martins : Oh? What about?

  Crabbin : On the modern novel, you remember? What we arranged. I want you to talk about the crisis of faith.

  Holly Martins : What's that?

  Crabbin : Oh, I thought you'd know. You're a writer.

• Holly Martins : Didn't you hear Mr. Crabbin offer me the hospitality of the H.Q.B.M.T. ?

• Holly Martins : Did you ever read a book of mine called, "The Lone Rider of Santa Fe"?

  Sgt. Paine : No, not that one, sir.

  Holly Martins : lt's a story about a man who hunted down a sheriff who was victimizing his best friend.

  Crabbin : Seems exciting.

  Holly Martins : lt is! l'm gunning just the same way for your Major Callaghan.

  Sgt. Paine : Sounds anti-British, sir.

• Popescu : l helped Harry fix her papers, Mr. Martins.

  Holly Martins : Oh, you did?

  Popescu : Not a sort of thing l should confess to a stranger, but you have to break the rules sometimes. Humanity - is a duty. Cigarette, Miss Schmidt?

• Holly Martins : l was told that a third man helped you and Kurtz carry the body.

  Popescu : l don't know how you got that idea. You'll find all about it in the police report. There was just the two of us, me and the Baron. Who could have told you a story like that ?

• Holly Martins : Well, what's this? Where are we?

  Sgt. Paine : lt's the main sewer. Runs right into the blue Danube. Smells sweet, doesn't it?

• Holly Martins : A lot of good your money will do you in jail.

  Harry Lime : That jail's in another zone.

• Holly Martins : I'd make comic faces... and stand on my head and grin at you between my legs... and tell all sorts of jokes. I wouldn't stand a chance, would I?

• Holly Martins : There was a third man there. l suppose that doesn't sound peculiar to you.

  Maj. Calloway : l'm not interested in whether a racketeer like Lime was killed by his friends or by an accident. The only important thing is that he's dead.

• Holly Martins : Did you ever hear of "The Lone Rider of Santa Fe"?

  Maj. Calloway : Can't say that l have.

  Holly Martins : "Death at Double-X Ranch"? Uh, "Raunch".

• Holly Martins : Driver! Driver! Slow down! Have you got orders to kill me?

• Popescu : Why wasn't he at the police inquiry?

  Holly Martins : He doesn't want to get involved.

  Popescu : You'll never teach these Austrians to be good citizens. lt was his duty to give the evidence.

• Holly Martins : This is more like a mortuary than a police headquarters.

• Holly Martins : l knew him for 20 years - at least, l thought l knew him. Suppose he was laughing at fools like us all the time?

  Anna Schmidt : He liked to laugh.

• Holly Martins : l'll be your dumb decoy duck.

• Holly Martins : Tell him l'll wait by that wheel there. Or, do ghosts only rise by night, Dr. Winkel ?

• Holly Martins : ls it comedy or tragedy?

  Anna Schmidt : Comedy. l don't play tragedy.

• Holly Martins : Don't preach wisdom to me.