The Third Man Ending Explained: Why Anna Ignores Holly

Spoilers ahead for the ending of The Third Man (1949).

Anna walks past Holly because she does not want a relationship with him. She is still attached to Harry, and Holly helped the police pursue the man she loved. Harry’s death has not changed her feelings into love for Holly. [1][4]

Yet as she walks down that long avenue, it is easy to hope she might stop. Holly seems to be waiting for that too. The film gives the hope time to grow, then makes us watch her pass him by.

What happens at the end?

Having shot Harry in the sewers, Holly attends his real funeral. Afterwards, he leaves with Major Calloway. Their car overtakes Anna as she walks along the road. Holly gets out to wait for her. [2]

She approaches from the distance. He stays where he is. She walks straight past without looking at him, and the shot continues as he lights a cigarette. There is no cut to spare him, or us, the moment after she has gone. [2]

The chase is over. Harry is dead. But Holly still has one hope left, and the film saves its answer for this last encounter.

Doesn’t Anna know what Harry has done?

She does. Knowing about his crimes has not made her stop loving him. In their conversation at her apartment, Holly tries to get her to see Harry differently. She resists. When Holly declares his own feelings, she gives him little encouragement. [3]

So her final refusal is not a sudden change of heart. Holly’s feelings for her have been growing while she has continued to love someone else.

From his position, it must be tempting to think that learning how cruel Harry could be would change everything for her. But new information cannot simply wipe out the time she spent loving him. It certainly cannot make her love the person bringing her that information instead.

That is what makes her walk past feel consistent with the woman we have already met. Whether she can accept Harry’s crimes and whether she can love Holly are different questions.

Why does Holly help the police if it costs him Anna?

At first, Holly offers to cooperate in return for Anna’s safe passage out of Vienna. When she refuses the arrangement, he wants to withdraw. Then Calloway takes him to the children’s hospital. [4]

There he confronts the victims of the diluted penicillin Harry has sold. Protecting his friend now means looking away from what has happened to these children. After the visit, Holly agrees to act as the decoy. [4]

He can no longer make his decision solely around what might bring Anna closer to him. He has seen a reason to stop Harry that he cannot set aside.

Anna, though, does not have to understand his choice or love him for making it. He can do what he believes is right and still lose the relationship he wants. That is a painful place to leave him.

Why is the final shot so long?

While Anna is still far down the avenue, we can see that she will pass Holly. But she takes time to reach him. With each step, there is room to wonder: will she say something? Will she at least pause?

Donato Totaro notes how strongly this long take stands out against the brisk editing elsewhere in the film. [5] After all the pursuit and movement, there is nothing to do here but wait.

Anna is getting closer. She just isn’t walking towards Holly in the way he hopes. We feel the difference when she passes right in front of him and keeps going.

If the film cut from Holly waiting to Anna already beyond him, we would know the outcome. We would have spent much less time hoping for anything else. The length of the shot lets us wait with him, then leaves us there with him too.

Was the book’s ending different?

Yes. Graham Greene’s prose story brings Martins and Anna together. The order of events is worth getting straight, though: Greene first wrote the story as a treatment for the film. It was published as a novella later. Reed was not simply adapting a novel that was already on the shelves. [6]

The production discussions contain a small surprise too. It is often told as a story of Reed resisting a producer who wanted romance. Charles Drazin cites notes by Reed in which Selznick himself questions whether Anna could plausibly join Martins so soon after her lover’s death. [6]

After watching the film, it is easy to understand that objection. Why would Harry’s death make Anna’s feelings change so conveniently? Letting her keep walking feels faithful to the attachment the film has shown all along.

On another viewing, listen to Holly and Anna’s earlier conversations. They may be talking about the same man, but they are not necessarily hoping for the same thing. Their paths did not begin to diverge on that avenue.

For another part of the film’s uneasy atmosphere, see why The Third Man looks crooked.

Sources

Sources checked on 3 November 2026.

1. Michael Wilmington, “The Third Man,” The Criterion Collection, 8 November 1999 — Holly’s unrequited attachment and the film’s central relationships.

2. Richard Raskin, “Closure in The Third Man: on the dynamics of an unhappy ending,” P.O.V. — the closing sequence, its staging and differing critical readings.

3. Tim Dirks, The Third Man, scene account, Filmsite — Anna and Holly’s apartment conversation.

4. AFI Catalog, The Third Man — the proposed arrangement, hospital visit, café and pursuit.

5. Donato Totaro, “The Third Man: DVD Review,” Offscreen, September 2002 — the long take and its contrast with the film’s editing.

6. Charles Drazin, “Behind The Third Man,” The Criterion Collection, 21 May 2007 — treatment, novella and production discussions of the ending.