Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who does Holly Martins seek? Childhood friend
A:
Sights of Vienna, Austria, flash across the screen as an Englishman's voice (Carol Reed) describes the racketeer trade in the post-World War II era. He describes that many amateurs have tried to get involved in this career, but he implies that they always end up dead. Meanwhile, the city is quartered into sectors policed by occupying forces -- the English, the Russians, the Americans and the French -- though they barely can handle the criminal element and don't even speak the same language. The city is devastated ("bombed about a bit," says the narrator), covered in jagged rubble. He begins to tell the story of an American coming to Vienna named Holly Martins, who has come to accept a job from an old friend.Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) gets off his train and is surprised that his friend, Harry Lime, isn't at the station to meet him. Holly goes to Lime's flat, but the building porter (Paul Horbiger), through extremely broken English, tells him that he just missed Lime's friends leaving with a coffin. The porter says that Harry was killed, hit by a truck right in front of the building.Martins goes to a massive graveyard and finds a funeral service. An Englishman (Trevor Howard) hovering nearby informs Holly it is Harry's funeral. Standing by the grave are two middle-aged men, both of whom eye Holly suspiciously. Also in attendance is a pretty woman (Alida Valli) who doesn't notice him. After the funeral, Martins begins to walk back into town, and the Englishman offers him a ride.The stranger introduces himself as Major Calloway, a police officer in the British sector of Vienna, and offers to buy him a drink. Holly agrees and proceeds to drink while reminiscing about Harry. It is revealed that Holly is an author of pulp Western novellas. As he talks about his old friend, Calloway says that it's better that Lime is dead, since he was a murderer and a racketeer. Holly takes umbrage at Calloway's suggestion and reaches to punch him, but he's quickly socked in the face by fellow English soldier Sergeant Paine...