The Third Man - Fairground Scene

HARRY Hello, old man. How are you? MARTINS Hello, Harry. HARRY Well, well, they seem to've been giving you quite some busy time. MARTINS Listen... HARRY Yes. MARTINS I want to talk to you. HARRY Talk to me?...Of course...Come on... (They move towards the big wheel. The girl attendant of the wheel enters) HARRY Kids used to ride this thing a lot in the old days. They haven't got the money nowadays, poor little devils. (Harry gets the tickets from the girl.) GIRL Zwei steck. HARRY Geht in ordung. (They enter the carriage of the wheel.) GIRL Vielen danke. (Girl attendant closes the door and starts the wheel in motion.) MARTINS Listen, Harry - I didn't believe that... HARRY It's good to see you, Holly. MARTINS I was at your funeral. HARRY It was pretty smart, wasn't it? Oh, the same old indigestion. (takes a tablet) Holly...these are the only things that help - these tablets. These are the last. Can't get them anywhere in Europe any more. MARTINS Do you know what's happened to your girl? HARRY Hmm. MARTINS She's been arrested. HARRY Tough...tough...Don't worry, old man, they won't hurt her. MARTINS They are handing her over to the Russians. HARRY What can I do, old man, I'm dead, aren't I? MARTINS You can help her. HARRY Holly... (Harry looks out of the window, then at Martins) HARRY ...exactly who did you tell about me? Hmm? MARTINS I told the police. (Harry looks out of the window.) HARRY Unwise, Holly... MARTINS And - Anna... HARRY Did the police believe you? MARTINS You don't care anything at all about Anna, do you? (He laughs.) HARRY Well, I've got quite a lot on my mind. MARTINS You wouldn't do anything. (Harry looks at Martins.) HARRY What do you want me to do? MARTINS (overlap) You can get somebody else... HARRY Do you expect me to give myself up? MARTINS Why not? HARRY It's far better thing that I do... Holly, you and I aren't heroes, the world doesn't make any heroes... MARTINS You've got plenty of contacts. HARRY Outside of your stories...I've got to be careful. I'm only safe in the Russian Zone... I'm safe as long as they can use me... MARTINS As long as they can use you? HARRY I wish I could get rid of this thing. MARTINS Oh, so that's how they found out about Anna... You told them, didn't you? HARRY Don't try to be a policeman, old man. MARTINS What did you expect me to be – part of your... HARRY Part? You can have any part you want, so long as you don't interfere...I have never cut you out of anything yet. MARTINS I remember when they raided the gambling joint - you knew a safe way out... HARRY Sure... MARTINS Yes, safe for you...not safe for me. HARRY Old man - you never should have gone to the police. You know you ought to leave this thing alone. MARTINS Have you ever seen any of your victims? HARRY Do you know, I don't ever feel comfortable on these sort of things...Victims? (He opens the door of the carriage.) Don't be melodramatic. Look down there... (Long shot from Martins' eye line of the fairground far below and the people now on it.) Would you feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you £20,000 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. It's the only way to save money nowadays. MARTINS Lot of good your money will do you in jail. HARRY That jail is in another zone... There's no proof against me, beside you. MARTINS I should be pretty easy to get rid of. HARRY Pretty easy... MARTINS I wouldn't be too sure. HARRY I carry a gun...I don't think they'd look for a bullet wound after you'd hit that ground... MARTINS They dug up your coffin. HARRY And found Harbin? Hmm, pity. Oh, Holly, what fools we are, talking to each other this way... As though I would do anything to - or you to me. (Harry closes the door of the carriage.) You're just a little mixed up about things...in general. Nobody thinks in terms...of human beings. Governments don't, so 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 plan, and so have I. MARTINS You used to believe in God. HARRY I still do believe in God, old man... I believe in God and Mercy and all that... The dead are happier dead. They don't miss much here... (Harry starts to idly write on the window at his side - he has drawn on the steamed-up window a heart with an arrow through it. He is writing the word ANNA above it.) ...poor devils. What do you believe in? (We see they are now on ground level, through the window.) Well, if you ever get Anna out of mess, be kind to her. (He opens the door and Martins starts to go through.) You'll find she's worth it. (Martins comes out of the carriage of the big wheel, followed by Harry. They stop just outside) I wish I had asked you to bring me some of these tablets from home... Holly, I would like to cut you in, old man. Nobody left in Vienna I can really trust - and we have always done everything together. When you make up your mind, send me a message... I'll meet you any place, any time. And when we do meet, old man, it is you I want to see, not the police. Remember that, won't you? (Martins moves away but Harry bars his way on the steps. Music starts.) HARRY Don't be so gloomy...After all, it's not that awful. Remember what the fellow said...in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo – Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance...In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?...The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.