The Third Man (Click on any image to load a larger copy)
Introduction
One of my favorite movies is The Third Man
with Orson Wells and directed by Carol Reed. Something about the setting, script, actors, and director make this
movie quite different than what was produced in Hollywood at the time. So when I was planning to go to Vienna,
Austria (See Trip to Austria), I was quite happy to see that there was a walking tour about the movie. The tour would cover where
the filming took place (The film was filmed on location in 1948 Vienna) and the inspirations behind the story.
I arrived in Vienna on a Sunday an took advantage of the opportunity to see the film again at the Burg Kino near by the Opera House. It shows the movie twice a week and has been doing so for many years. It was strange to see the movie in Vienna as some of the locations in the movie I had just seen. Some of the places were damaged in the movie and now were restored. Other places had never changed. After the movie I walked to the Hotel Sacher, where Holly Martins had a room in the movie, and had a slice of their famous Sacher-Torte which surprisingly was never mentioned in the movie - maybe sugar was still be rationed?
The next day I took the U-Bahn to the Stadtpark and met up with the rest of the tour group. I expected to find maybe a dozen other people who would have the same interest as me but was surprised to find about 50 people waiting for the tour. I was also surprised that about half the people interested in the tour were German speakers (I was only surprised as the movie is in English and mainly about British and American people). The tour guides arrived after a few minutes and broke up the tour group into two sections, one in English the other in German. Our tour guide was Brigitte Timmermann, who started the tour company and has written a book on the filming of The Third Man (Hopefully it will be translated into English soon). I asked here about the interest in the tour by German speakers and she indicated that many Austrians are interested in the movie to hear the difference between American English and British English and to see something about the history of Vienna at the end of World War II.
Our first stop was to see the sewers where the climatically chase took place. To enter the sewer we went through a kiosk very similar to the one in the movie and climbed down about two stories. The sewer really is not a sewer in the normal sense. It actually is the Vienna River that has been diverted to allow the city to expand and to prevent flooding. It also is not a sewer for refuse rather it is a storm sewer. We found out that most of the chase was filmed down here but that the close ups of Orson Wells had to be done on a recreation of the sewer in a sound stage in London. It seems that Mr Wells did not want to go in the sewer and demand that things would be changed for him.
We next headed off to the Hotel Sacher where Holly Martins said. We learned that the author of the book, Graham Greene. also stayed here when he wrote the book. It was interesting to find out that the inspiration for the character of Harry Lime was one of Graham's friends, Harold "Kim" Philby (Who was the Third Man of the Cambridge Spy Ring after Mclean and Burgess defected to Moscow). We also found out about Elizabeth Montagu a most interesting lady who gave up a life of privilege and became a spy in World War II. She was a guide in Vienna to Graham Greene and provided him with much information on the Black Market of Vienna.
A few blocks later, we were in front of the house where Harry Lime lived. It is an unassuming building across the street from the Spanish Riding School. Our tour guide showed us a still from the movie, which she would repeat man time in the tour, and contrasted it to the building today. In sixty years it has not changed at all. We walked past a few more buildings near by where parts of the movie were filmed before we reached the doorway where we first see Harry Lime. It was interesting to see that the doorway was still there but that in the movie two doorways were used. The first one, the real doorway, was used with a double of Orson Wells who did not show up for filming on time. The second was a reconstruction at the sound stage in London, copied with meticulous attention to little details. You can not see the difference in the movie. Wells's late showing led to the director used a stand in for Wells and shot the shadows of the stand in running away. This gave the movie one of its most interesting stylistic effects.
The tour ended at a bar where we heard a zither play the Harry Lime Theme. The tour guide then explained how the theme was written by Anton Karas, who did not know how to read or write music, and his life after the movie. We also learned that after the filming, Carol Reed, the director, gave the lights used to make the film to the city of Vienna to light up the newly restored Stephansdom (St. Steven's Cathedral).
It was a great tour of a great film. Later on my trip I went to take a ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel at the Prater and though of those famous lines Harry Lime tells Holly Martins.
I arrived in Vienna on a Sunday an took advantage of the opportunity to see the film again at the Burg Kino near by the Opera House. It shows the movie twice a week and has been doing so for many years. It was strange to see the movie in Vienna as some of the locations in the movie I had just seen. Some of the places were damaged in the movie and now were restored. Other places had never changed. After the movie I walked to the Hotel Sacher, where Holly Martins had a room in the movie, and had a slice of their famous Sacher-Torte which surprisingly was never mentioned in the movie - maybe sugar was still be rationed?
The next day I took the U-Bahn to the Stadtpark and met up with the rest of the tour group. I expected to find maybe a dozen other people who would have the same interest as me but was surprised to find about 50 people waiting for the tour. I was also surprised that about half the people interested in the tour were German speakers (I was only surprised as the movie is in English and mainly about British and American people). The tour guides arrived after a few minutes and broke up the tour group into two sections, one in English the other in German. Our tour guide was Brigitte Timmermann, who started the tour company and has written a book on the filming of The Third Man (Hopefully it will be translated into English soon). I asked here about the interest in the tour by German speakers and she indicated that many Austrians are interested in the movie to hear the difference between American English and British English and to see something about the history of Vienna at the end of World War II.
Our first stop was to see the sewers where the climatically chase took place. To enter the sewer we went through a kiosk very similar to the one in the movie and climbed down about two stories. The sewer really is not a sewer in the normal sense. It actually is the Vienna River that has been diverted to allow the city to expand and to prevent flooding. It also is not a sewer for refuse rather it is a storm sewer. We found out that most of the chase was filmed down here but that the close ups of Orson Wells had to be done on a recreation of the sewer in a sound stage in London. It seems that Mr Wells did not want to go in the sewer and demand that things would be changed for him.
We next headed off to the Hotel Sacher where Holly Martins said. We learned that the author of the book, Graham Greene. also stayed here when he wrote the book. It was interesting to find out that the inspiration for the character of Harry Lime was one of Graham's friends, Harold "Kim" Philby (Who was the Third Man of the Cambridge Spy Ring after Mclean and Burgess defected to Moscow). We also found out about Elizabeth Montagu a most interesting lady who gave up a life of privilege and became a spy in World War II. She was a guide in Vienna to Graham Greene and provided him with much information on the Black Market of Vienna.
A few blocks later, we were in front of the house where Harry Lime lived. It is an unassuming building across the street from the Spanish Riding School. Our tour guide showed us a still from the movie, which she would repeat man time in the tour, and contrasted it to the building today. In sixty years it has not changed at all. We walked past a few more buildings near by where parts of the movie were filmed before we reached the doorway where we first see Harry Lime. It was interesting to see that the doorway was still there but that in the movie two doorways were used. The first one, the real doorway, was used with a double of Orson Wells who did not show up for filming on time. The second was a reconstruction at the sound stage in London, copied with meticulous attention to little details. You can not see the difference in the movie. Wells's late showing led to the director used a stand in for Wells and shot the shadows of the stand in running away. This gave the movie one of its most interesting stylistic effects.
The tour ended at a bar where we heard a zither play the Harry Lime Theme. The tour guide then explained how the theme was written by Anton Karas, who did not know how to read or write music, and his life after the movie. We also learned that after the filming, Carol Reed, the director, gave the lights used to make the film to the city of Vienna to light up the newly restored Stephansdom (St. Steven's Cathedral).
It was a great tour of a great film. Later on my trip I went to take a ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel at the Prater and though of those famous lines Harry Lime tells Holly Martins.
Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.
Photo Info
I used a Olympus C-750UZ 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. The images were cleaned up a bit with Adobe PhotoShop
Elements (To correct the color balance). Additional Camera Information
Photos
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| The doorway of Harry Lime's Apartment Building in the movie | The same doorway today. The building actually is a club across the street from the Spanish Riding School |
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| Emperor Josef statue, where Harry Lime 'died' | Hotel Sacher where Holly Martins stayed. The Hotel is the most expensive in Vienna and is famous for the Sacher-Torte |
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| Cafe Mozart, where Martins met Baron Kurtz. It is in the same building as the Hotel Sacher | The Casanova Club, Lime's haunt and where meets Kurtz and Popescu |
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| The scene in the movie where we and Martins see that Lime is quite alive | The same doorway today |
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| In the movie, Lime runs away and we see his shadow on this wall | The wall is of a church and it has not changed much |
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| In the movie, Martins runs into the square after Lime and only find a kiosk | The kiosk in the square was a prop as the sewer does not exist there. This is a real kiosk that leads down to the sewer |
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| Martins is telling Kurtz that he wants to meet Lime at the Giant Ferris Wheel | The Giant Ferris Wheel still runs at the Prater |
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| Lime is tying to run away from the police using the sewer system | The sewer system is still as mysterious as it was in the movie |