10 Movies Where You Want The Villain To Win

The moment Orson Welles' Harry Lime appears in the shadowy doorway of 1949’s The Third Man we were all enthralled. The British noir classic focuses on author Holly Martins who’s moved to Vienna at the behest of the mysterious Lime - a supposed friend with a job opening for Martins - only to discover Lime has perished in a suspicious accident. Or has he?

Lime is a conniving, selfish person whose slow-burn reveal of impropriety has us turning more and more against him. That is until the legendary “humans are like ants” speech, wherein this traitorous character lays out in no uncertain terms his view of the war, capitalist society and humanity at large.

This depressingly nihilistic outlook on life sparks a sense of sympathy for the jaded Lime, and grudging admiration for his candour in the face of death. Does it diminish the heinous acts he has committed? Absolutely not. Do we want to see him perhaps survive this situation and witness better days? Yes, maybe.

Full of devilish twists and turns, The Third Man is a stone-cold classic of noir cinema that only cemented Welles’ status as a living legend, despite only appearing in roughly half of the movie. Second only to his performance in the seminal Citizen Kane, Welles flourishes under Carol Reed’s deft direction, giving us a big screen spook for the ages.