The Third Man

[first lines]

Harry Lime:
Well?

Walter Strickland:
Beautiful! I didn't know you were in the diamond business, Harry.

Harry Lime:
I'm not. That's why I want to sell it to you.

Harry Lime:
Well, I can give you two prices for it - a hundred and fifty thousand the way it is, two hundred and fifty if it's properly cut.

Harry Lime:
The second price interests me.

Walter Strickland:
I thought it would.

Harry Lime:
I'll have to take a rain check, Mr. Wheeler.

Frank Wheeler:
That's the problem with rain checks down here. It never rains.

Karl Van Root:
Diamond cutting is for younger men. Age is the enemy of precision.

Harry Lime:
I thought his hands shook, Lisel... or do they only shake when I'm around?

Inspector Bochet:
No identification. A most uncooperative corpse...

[glaring at Brad]

Inspector Bochet:
...and, I may add, a most uncooperative witness.

Inspector Bochet:
Do you recognize him.

Harry Lime:
No, I've never seen him before.

Inspector Bochet:
He came to you, in here.

Harry Lime:
A lot of people I don't know come to see me.

Inspector Bochet:
They don't all get murdered, do they?

Harry Lime:
Fortunately, the majority survive.

Bradford Webster:
Of course, if my confidence can't be respected...

Harry Lime:
You can't blame, Luigi. After all, he's never met you.

Bradford Webster:
Mr. Lime, you've never told me a single thing about Luigi Carvossa, or why we've been sending him checks for the last 18 years.

Harry Lime:
That's right, Brad, I haven't.

Harry Lime:
It's been a long time, Luigi.

Luigi Carvossa:
Six thousand, four hundred and eighteen days, Mr. Lime. Eighteen years it has taken Alberto Dimonella's body to reach the bottom of the glacier, but tomorrow we should be able to dig him out of the ice. I hope the wait has been worth my wages.

Harry Lime:
It will have been, Luigi, if Alberto's knapsack is still intact.

Nina Dimonella:
I live in Milano. Does your work ever take you there?

Harry Lime:
It will now.

[last lines]

Harry Lime:
By the way, Miss Muffin called me this morning. She's decided against invading England with her pancakes.

Bradford Webster:
Just as well, Mr. Lime, and only fair, too, when you think about it. After all, the English haven't done anything terrible to the United States since the War of 1812.

Eva:
Am I working for you?

Harry Lime:
What do you bring to the partnership?

[Eva grabs Harry and they kiss passionately]

Eva:
Is that a serious question?

Harry Lime:
If it is, you just answered it.

[Mr. White, the purser, has just found Harry in a card sharp's cabin]

The Purser:
You know, Mr. Lime, if I boarded a ship in the middle of the Mediterrean on the very thin pretext of wanting to buy her, I'd watch my step.

Harry Lime:
Well, that's exactly what I am doing, Mr. White.

Harry Lime:
You interest me, Mr. Jahn, maybe because you're so different from me. I changed from a rather obscure past into respectability; you went the other way - from a professor of metallurgy to a bank robber.

Bradford Webster:
Mr. Lime, that check I cashed for you yesterday...

Harry Lime:
Yes?

Bradford Webster:
It bounced.

Harry Lime:
What do you mean? It couldn't have.

Bradford Webster:
After you left yesterday, I began to get a bit nervous, so I wired the bank in Zurich. The reply advised me to hold that check; it can't be made good.

Harry Lime:
I don't understand. I've been dealing with Hoercher for years.

Bradford Webster:
Well, Mr. Lime, today is Saturday. If you can't cover that check by Monday, I might find myself behind a window with much stronger bars than a teller's cage.

Louise Hoercher:
I want to sell everything and be done with it.

Bradford Webster:
That isn't very business-like, Miss Hoercher. I don't approve of it. Mr. Ponti doesn't strike me as the kind of man who buys something he doesn't want; ergo, he wants the shares; ergo, he must have a reason for wanting them; ergo, you shouldn't sell to him before you know his reason.

Harry Lime:
Mr. Webster, where have you been all my life?

Bradford Webster:
Manhattan National Bank, Lexington Branch, Window 7.

Duchess:
Mr. Lime, the Company Monteleone is Monteleone. When you own the company, you own everything. In a sense, even me.

Harry Lime:
Mr. Webster, it seems we are about to buy a country.

Miss Hidwick:
I'm closing.

Bradford Webster:
It's seven minutes to three.

Miss Hidwick:
It's spring!

Bradford Webster:
Today's March 19th; spring doesn't start until the 21st.

Miss Hidwick:
Spring comes early for some, never for others.

Bradford Webster:
You shouldn't be alone with her - she might be dangerous.

Harry Lime:
Brad, the only way to be in the majority with a woman is to be alone with her.

Dame Lavinia:
So this is where you lurk and scheme, you wicked man.

Harry Lime:
Dame Lavinia, I'm overwhelmed.

Dame Lavinia:
As well you might be. This is my first outing during the hours of daylight since the coronation.

Harry Lime:
Couldn't you sleep?

Dame Lavinia:
I never sleep - I lie and think. Today, my thoughts came in stanzas of running fire; they forced me to come and see you.

Harry Lime:
Well, maybe it's the warm spring.

Dame Lavinia:
[laughs] I like you, Harry Lime. Our minds dance to the same preposterous music.

Harry Lime:
Anything else?

Dame Lavinia:
A word of warning. These things we collect are toys of the dead, yet some collectors value them beyond life - anybody's life. Be very careful.

Batlivenga:
My dear Mr. Lime, you are wounded.

Harry Lime:
I wouldn't worry about it, Batlivenga.

Batlivenga:
You are accident prone, perhaps? I have known this before in people. In such cases, the senses warn the brain repeatedly of danger, but the brain takes no notice - rejects the message. The result: accident, injury, and if the condition persists, loss of life. It's virutally a disease.

Harry Lime:
Then stay away from me, Batlivenga. It may well be catching.

Batlivenga:
All right, Mr. Lime, you win. Let us do business together.

Harry Lime:
The market just closed.