Chapter Commentary of The Third Man - Study Guide by Graham Greene

MARTINS: So you were a friend of Harry's? '[17]

It is almost as if Martins cannot believe that this man could be a friend of the Harry he knew. Nevertheless, he is on mission and information often comes from strange sources in cheap novelettes. He questions him about Calloway's accusations that Harry was running a racket and receives evasive replies:

'Everyone in Vienna is - we all sell cigarettes and that kind of thing. Why, I have done things that would have been unthinkable before the war. Once when I was hard up, I sold some tyres on the black market... [The police] get rather absurd ideas sometimes... '

Martins asks Kurtz to show him how Harry died. They go to the site of the accident and Kurtz takes him through it step-by-step. Martins notices a vital discrepancy between Kurtz's account and that of the porter: The porter said that Harry died instantly. Kurtz claims that he did not and, in his typically obsequious fashion, that 'even at the end, his thoughts were of [Martins]'.

In the book, Martins suspects at this point that either the police had him killed or the racketeers had him killed. He mentions this to Kurtz, almost as an accusation and he sees that this disturbs Kurtz. In the film, Martins does not seem to have reached any such conclusions and, if he has, he doesn't mention them. However, he has two leads: Anna Schmidt, the girl who was at the funeral and the name of the theatre at which she works; and the address of Dr. Winkel, Harry's doctor. The only evidence he has is that discrepancy between the porter's and Kurtz's account of Harry's death. Just as in The Lone Rider, Greene keeps up the tension, suspense, keeps us guessing.

Martins follows his leads. First he goes to the Josefstadt theatre to find Anna Schimdt. He describes her:

'She wasn't a beautiful face... Just an honest face; dark hair and eyes which in that light looked brown; a wide forehead, a large mouth which didn't try to charm.' (38)

She is very different to Kurtz. She is an actor only on stage; by day, her face is not made up '- to express charm, whimsicality, lines at the corners of the eyes'. Martins explains, in the book, that he recognised her instantly as a friend, someone that he could be at ease with because 'you know you will never, never will you be in danger.'

Martins asks Anna about Harry and his death. She gives him the Kurtz account - Kurtz present; with him, Popescu; Harry knocked down, and his own doctor, Dr. Winkel - who happened to be passing - on the scene within minutes. She, too, was told that Harry did not die immediately and that in his dying moments his thoughts were of her. Harry was, it seems, most thoughtful in the moments before he died. Martins does not find this difficult to believe. It is when Anna mentions that the driver of the truck that knocked Harry down was none other than Harry's driver that Martins' suspicions are aroused:

'I don't get this. Kurtz and - his own driver knocking him down - not a single stranger.'[23]

In the stage directions, we are told that 'MARTINS up to this point has never thought of murder'. He remembers that the porter was a witness and he goes, with Anna, to see him. The porter repeats his story: Harry died immediately. With him were three men. Kurtz, Popescu and Dr. Winkel. No, Dr. Winkel arrived later. There were three men and then Dr. Winkel arrived. So, there are two discrepancies between his account and Kurtz's account: the time of death and the Third Man.

Martins tries to convince the porter to take his evidence to the police. The porter, until now very helpful, clams up, refuses to speak about it any further and asks Martins and Anna to leave. They return to Anna's house to find that she has visitors - the police are in the process of searching her room. This encounter of Martins with Calloway demonstrates the high romanticism of Martins' mission. Calloway is going about his business - investigating Anna, who he suspects rightly of having forged paper from