Alright, this is one I came to agree needed to happen after both discussing with some pals and refreshing on the film. Shame to lose an iconic candidate, but ultimately it is what it is, and he still is an awesome villain.
What is the Work?[]
The Third Man. A classic 1949 film following struggling writer Holly Martins, who has travelled to Vienna due to a job offer by his old friend, Harry Lime. However just a few days before his arrival, Harry met with an accident and arrived at the very day of his funeral. Wanting to learn the manner of Harry's death, especially when he hears that the police suspect of being a criminal and wants to clear his friends name. But then he reaches the suspicious contradiction, where the official report talks about only 2 people carrying Harry's body, but his butler talked about seeing a third man....
Well, it's basically his sled at this point nearly over 75 years after the film's release but the third man was Harry. He was both not dead, and indeed a dastardly criminal with a deep baritone of Orson Wells, seeing humans as just dots in the large scheme.
Who is Harry Lime? Why Does he Not Count?[]
Harry Lime was an old friend to the protagonist, Holly Martins, but in truth, under the veneer of superficial politeness, he is a brilliant crime lord who ran a drug racket, murdering an associate who squealed to the police to fake his own death and continue his operations. Problem is, the brilliant Harry Lime's operations had evil side effects, as it is the selling of watered down penicillin, 70 euros per pound, to hospitals, resulting in the deaths or crippling of dozens to hundreds of innocent men, women and even children, Holly even bore witness to a childcare ward of those doomed by Harry's actions. Not that he cares, as to him, human beings are like dots, he wouldn't care if one of them keeps moving, which is why he is willing to personally murder people to silence any knowledge of his operations. Harry Lime, for all his charm, is heinous... especially for a film that got out in 1949, where censorship standards were much more stringent compared to now.
But frankly I don't think his death scene, or general friendship with Holly was well discussed enough in his previous formality post. So Holly and Harry were old friends, and Harry is happy to chat up with Holly. While initially wanting to kill Holly for being a possible loose end, but then when he realizes he doesn't need to kill Holly when the police already know he's alive, he is seemingly sincere in trying to offer him a job to help him like an old buddy, convince him to see his own sociopathic viewpoints, even taking offense at Holly believing him to be a Godless murderer, or even trusting Holly to take care of his girlfriend Anna at his stead. To be frank, at first it seems very easy to just dismiss it as pragmatic villainy, after all he did talk about how he just sees human beings as dots and does not care he would make one of them stop moving (by killing them), that he is willing to kill Holly after that for trying to lead the police to him....
But then we get to his death scene, which ultimately throws the relationship to just "shallow flattery" to "potentially earnest", when he realized he is down and cornered, barely unable to stand, he pitifully gives Holly permission to shoot him as a final request from his old friend. This is made even more notable as Major Calloway, the police chief investigating Lime, warns Holly to be careful and shoot him immediately as Lime is a crafty fellow who wouldn't hesitate to shoot especially since he still is armed with a gun, and still he doesn't shoot him, but just surrenders his life to him, presented as told before, a sort of final request.
I think his death is pretty much what cemented my feeling Lime doesn't keep. As it shows that ultimately in step of everything, he does somewhat view Holly as a friend and only would try killing him if he really has to, but not only that, but it is also really pitiable in comparison. This film was released in 1949, when morality shown is very black-and-white, especially when the films themselves were black and white. The villains had little positive traits and their deaths were celebrations... Lime's isn't. It isn't presented as a cathartic moment of victory, or glamourous, but a somber tragic event for all parties, that despite of everything, everyone lets him get a proper burial, even Holly attends as just a final respect to him. It's not really the sort of ending a PE villain would get.
Final Verdict[]
Personally gonna be a cut, very slightly and technically. Still a great villain, but I don't think writers of that time period hinging on black-and-white morality would want to give that sort of finish for a villain they want to be as the worst of the worst scums.