.gif)
The Third Man,
directed by Carol Reed and released in 1949, is a film that has
garnered critical acclaim for its innovative cinematography and its
atmospheric portrayal of post-war Vienna. I was taken by its haunting
use of Vienna to return to the city just to hunt down the locations that
emphasise the city's war-torn visage and political complexities,
serving not just as a backdrop but as a character in its own right,
contributing significantly to the film's narrative and thematic depth.
.gif)
Vienna's portrayal in the film is multifaceted, reflecting the city's
historical, political, and cultural contexts in the immediate aftermath
of the war. .gif)
It's a terrific source I use in my class when teaching the
Cold War given that Vienna was divided into four zones, each controlled
by one of the Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom,
France, and the Soviet Union already establishing the general atmosphere of
mistrust and paranoia which captures the essence of the Cold War
era, where allegiances were uncertain, and betrayal was a constant fear.
This
division is clearly shown at the start, where the four powers are shown
here in front of the Justizpalast on Schmerlingplatz. This division is
crucial to understanding
the film's setting, as it creates a labyrinthine environment of intrigue
and ambiguity, mirroring the moral complexities of the characters. Vienna
here serves as a striking representation of a divided city in post-war
Europe, a condition that was emblematic of the Cold War's broader
division of Europe. The film's depiction of Vienna, segmented into
sectors controlled by the Allies and the Soviet Union, mirrors the
real-world division of Berlin and, by extension, the division of Europe
itself. This is akin to
the division of Berlin, where each sector reflected the culture and
policies of its occupying power. .gif)
The
portrayal of different sectors in the film further reflects the
contrasting approaches of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. The
Western sectors are shown as relatively more open and liberal, whereas
the Soviet sector is depicted as more oppressive and rigid. For instance, when Martins crosses into the Soviet sector, there’s a noticeable change in the
atmosphere, symbolising the ideological divide.
This dichotomy mirrors the broader Cold War narrative where Western
Europe, under the Marshall Plan, embarked on a path of democratic
capitalism, while Eastern Europe, under Soviet influence, adopted a
communist system. The film is steeped in an
atmosphere of espionage, black market activities, and general mistrust,
characteristics that were pervasive throughout the Cold War era. The shadowy and uncertain environment in
post-war Vienna is reflective of the espionage battles that were a core
part of the Cold War, where both sides were deeply engaged in gathering
intelligence and countering each other's moves. The film also highlights the prevalence of black market activities,
such as the illegal penicillin trade, underlining the economic hardships
and moral ambiguities in the immediate post-war period. These
activities can be seen as a consequence of the war's devastation and the
resulting scarcities, which were also common in many parts of Europe
during the Cold War. Tony Judt wrote how the presence of the
Allied forces had a significant impact on the city's social and
political environment. The film captures this through its depiction of
the interactions between the local population and the occupying forces,
highlighting the complexities of these relationships. The presence of
the Allied forces is not just a backdrop but a critical element of the
film's narrative, influencing the characters' actions and the overall
atmosphere of the city.
.gif)
It's a terrific source I use in my class when teaching the
Cold War given that Vienna was divided into four zones, each controlled
by one of the Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom,
France, and the Soviet Union already establishing the general atmosphere of
mistrust and paranoia which captures the essence of the Cold War
era, where allegiances were uncertain, and betrayal was a constant fear.
This
division is clearly shown at the start, where the four powers are shown
here in front of the Justizpalast on Schmerlingplatz. This division is
crucial to understanding
the film's setting, as it creates a labyrinthine environment of intrigue
and ambiguity, mirroring the moral complexities of the characters. Vienna
here serves as a striking representation of a divided city in post-war
Europe, a condition that was emblematic of the Cold War's broader
division of Europe. The film's depiction of Vienna, segmented into
sectors controlled by the Allies and the Soviet Union, mirrors the
real-world division of Berlin and, by extension, the division of Europe
itself. This is akin to
the division of Berlin, where each sector reflected the culture and
policies of its occupying power. .gif)
The
portrayal of different sectors in the film further reflects the
contrasting approaches of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. The
Western sectors are shown as relatively more open and liberal, whereas
the Soviet sector is depicted as more oppressive and rigid. For instance, when Martins crosses into the Soviet sector, there’s a noticeable change in the
atmosphere, symbolising the ideological divide.
This dichotomy mirrors the broader Cold War narrative where Western
Europe, under the Marshall Plan, embarked on a path of democratic
capitalism, while Eastern Europe, under Soviet influence, adopted a
communist system. The film is steeped in an
atmosphere of espionage, black market activities, and general mistrust,
characteristics that were pervasive throughout the Cold War era. The shadowy and uncertain environment in
post-war Vienna is reflective of the espionage battles that were a core
part of the Cold War, where both sides were deeply engaged in gathering
intelligence and countering each other's moves. The film also highlights the prevalence of black market activities,
such as the illegal penicillin trade, underlining the economic hardships
and moral ambiguities in the immediate post-war period. These
activities can be seen as a consequence of the war's devastation and the
resulting scarcities, which were also common in many parts of Europe
during the Cold War. Tony Judt wrote how the presence of the
Allied forces had a significant impact on the city's social and
political environment. The film captures this through its depiction of
the interactions between the local population and the occupying forces,
highlighting the complexities of these relationships. The presence of
the Allied forces is not just a backdrop but a critical element of the
film's narrative, influencing the characters' actions and the overall
atmosphere of the city..gif)
The interactions between characters from the different occupying forces
highlight the cultural and ideological clashes of the Cold War. Again, the characters representing the Western Allies and the Soviet Union
often display conflicting ideologies and values. The Western characters
generally embody more liberal and capitalist ideals, while the Soviet
characters are depicted as adhering to strict, authoritarian principles.
The film offers more nuance as Major
Calloway, a British
officer, represents the Allied perspective, often at odds with Holly
Martins, an American. This is much as I lecture my students about the
serious disagreements that took place between Churchill and Roosevelt,
the latter who seemed to delight in antagonising his allies to curry
favour with the satanic Stalin. His zone, as are the other three, shown on the right when it appears at 2:48 into the film with the entrance to schloss Belvedere. Chancellor Schuschnigg lived in an official apartment here until 1938 before his arrest by the Nazis after the anschluss. .gif)
It was also here that the signing of the State Treaty, which made Austria free of occupying powers and other sovereignty restrictions, took place on May 15, 1955 in its Marble Hall.
.gif)
It was also here that the signing of the State Treaty, which made Austria free of occupying powers and other sovereignty restrictions, took place on May 15, 1955 in its Marble Hall. These interactions, particularly in the
context of
Holly's investigation into Harry Lime’s activities, reflect the
differing attitudes and approaches of their respective countries. Lime
himself is a symbol of
moral ambiguity and the clash between capitalist opportunism and the
harsh realities of post-war life. His famous speech atop the Ferris
wheel, where he dismisses the value of individual human life, reflects a
cynical exploitation of the situation, a theme prevalent in the Cold
War's ideological battles: "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." Meanwhile Anna, Lime's lover, is
caught between her loyalty to Lime and the reality of his criminal
activities. Her character embodies the personal and emotional conflicts
wrought by the political and ideological divide. These interactions reflect the broader ideological divide between the
West and the East during the Cold War allowing the film to explore how individuals from different cultural and
ideological backgrounds interact with each other, often resulting in misunderstandings and conflicts, symbolising the larger
cultural and political divides that characterised the Cold War era.
.gif)
2:27
into the film as the narrator refers to "the old Vienna before the war”
the Strauss memorial is shown. In 1903, four years after Strauss'
death, a committee was formed under the auspices of Princess Rosa
Croy-Sternberg to erect a monument in honour of the composer. After two
years the Vienna municipal council agreed to contribute 10,000 kroner
to the costs which, however, wasn't paid out until 1913. In fact, the
execution was constantly delayed, on the one hand due to financing
problems and on the other hand due to the outbreak of the Great War. It
wasn't until June 26, 1921, that the ceremonial unveiling took place,
during which the Vienna Philharmonic played.
The mayor spoke of how "[t]oday is a memorable one for the city of
Vienna which shows that the great sorrows visited on the people by the
war are finally beginning to lessen, that Vienna is coming back to life
again." One major difference between its appearance in the film and
today is the colour of the statue itself; in 1935, the damaged gilding
was removed and it wasn't until 1991 that the original condition of the
monument was restored. Twenty years later a comprehensive renovation
took place, which cost a remarkable 300,000 euros..gif)
.gif)
At 2:30 Beethoven makes an appearance from Beethovenplatz. He's buried at the Zentralfriedhof not far from where the cemetery scenes were shot; on the right I'm standing between his and Schubert's former graves at what had been Währing cemetery, northwest of Vienna, which had been closed and eventually turned into a park in the 1920s. The gravestone itself is a replica of this one.
.gif)
The first appearance of the cemetery and Lime's 'grave'
.gif)
Me standing in front of the site with the Karl-Borromäus-Kirche
towering in the background and Holly departing with Major Calloway
following behind. At first I was confused about the site given the
considerable difference in the size of the dome until I learned that it
had been destroyed during the war by an incendiary bomb with the repair
work lasting until the 1950s. Even then, the renovation was deplorable
and it wasn't until 2000 that the church was completely renovated on the
initiative of city councillor Johann Hatzl at a cost of 183 million
schillings and the dome itself restored true to the original. The
reopening took place on October 27, 2000 by the Mayor of Vienna, Michael
Häupl, and the re-inauguration four days later by the Archbishop of
Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. During the reopening, the new name
Cemetery Church of Saint Charles Borromeo was chosen. .gif)
.gif)
On the right Calloway confronts Holly as he invites him for a lift into town. The
memorial to field marshal Heinrich Freiherr von Hess behind me serves as
a point of reference. In the novella, no such reference points were available to Martins:.gif)
.gif)
He drove straight out of town into the suburb (British zone) where the Central Cemetery lay. One passed through the Russian zone to reach it, and a short cut through the American zone, which you couldn't mistake because of the ice-cream parlours in every street. The trams ran along the high wall of the Central Cemetery, and for a mile on the other side of the rails stretched the monumental masons and the market gardeners—an apparently endless chain of gravestones waiting for owners and wreaths waiting for mourners.
Martins had not realised the size of this huge snowbound park where he was making his last rendezvous with Lime. It was as if Harry had left a message to him, "Meet me in Hyde Park," without specifying a spot between the Achilles statue and Lancaster Gate; the avenue of graves, each avenue numbered and lettered, stretched out like the spokes of an enormous wheel; they drove for a half mile towards the west, then turned and drove a half mile north, turned south. … The snow gave the great pompous family headstones an air of grotesque comedy; a toupee of snow slipped sideways over an angelic face, a saint wore a heavy white moustache, and a shako of snow tipped at a drunken angle over the bust of a superior civil servant called Wolfgang Gottman. Even this cemetery was zoned between the powers: the Russian zone was marked by huge statues of armed men, the French by rows of anonymous wooden crosses and a torn tired tricolour flag. Then Martins remembered that Lime was a Catholic and was unlikely to be buried in the British zone for which they had been vainly searching. So back they drove through the heart of a forest where the graves lay like wolves under the trees, winking white eyes under the gloom of the evergreens.
.gif)
Baron
Kurtz meeting Holly at the (non-existent) Café Mozart on the Neuer
Markt. As with many of the locations shown in the film, the square was
badly damaged during the war a number of buildings disappeared and were
replaced by modern buildings. Beyond
the physical and economic aspects, Vienna's cultural landscape in The
Third Man is also a critical element of its portrayal. The city's rich
cultural heritage, juxtaposed with the prevailing atmosphere of despair
and moral ambiguity, creates a stark contrast that enhances the film's
narrative. Musicologist Adorno notes the significance of the film's
score, composed by Anton Karas, which features the zither. This choice
of instrument and the style of music provide a distinctly Viennese sound
that contrasts with the dark, noir visuals of the film. The zither's
light, almost whimsical tone, set against the backdrop of a ruined city,
underscores the juxtaposition of Vienna's cultural richness with the
grim realities of post-war life. .gif)
Kurtz
showing Holly the site of Lime's 'accident' on Josefsplatz, which is
centred around a full-sized equestrian statue and monument of Emperor
Joseph II at the base of which Kurtz and Harry’s friend “picked him up
and laid him down just about here... and this is where he died”. This is
directly in front of Lime's residence even though the film states that
the address is at Stiftgasse 15.
.gif)
Kurtz and Holly where Lime was supposedly fatally struck down by a
truck with Kurtz stating "it was just about here". In the background is a
section of the Hofburg Palace today containing the National Library. In
addition to its function as a library, the building was also designed
as a concert hall with superb acoustics. The library museum ended up
suffering catastrophic damage in the 1848 battle for Vienna, with the
zoological collection being completely destroyed by cannon fire. On the
occasion of Austria's second EU presidency in 2006, the Austrian Mint
minted a silver five euro coin on the reverse of which shows the
building with the Emperor Joseph statue in the centre. .gif)
“Vienna
doesn't really look any worse than a lot of other European cities;
bombed about a bit”. Hoher Markt on the right with the
Vermählungsbrunnen (Wedding fountain). Reed ended up being disappointed
that much of the bombed out ruins he encountered during his initial
recce of the sites had been cleared up. The film's use of language and
dialogue also reflects Vienna's complex cultural identity. Linguist
Crystal observes that the multilingual interactions among characters,
involving English, German, and Russian, are indicative of the city's
diverse cultural influences and the political tensions of the time. This
linguistic diversity adds to the film's realism and authenticity, as it
mirrors the actual linguistic landscape of post-war Vienna. The use of
different languages in the film not only serves as a plot device but
also symbolises the cultural and political fragmentation of the city. .gif)
Martins
coming to see Dr. Winkel at St. Ulrichsplatz 2. A
medical practitioner within the film, Winkel symbolises the ethical
dilemmas faced by individuals navigating a world in the aftermath of
war. His profession as a healer becomes a metaphor for the attempt to
mend the broken and wounded society left in the wake of conflict and
yet Winkel
benefits from a racket that sold tubes of diluted penicillin for £70
per tube.
Winkel was the one who came to the scene of the accident last and was
supposedly only able to determine that Harry was dead. The furnishings
of his apartment suggest that he is very wealthy despite the scarcity economy and
shows an interest in antiques; there are many statues and icons on
display and precious pictures and crucifixes hanging on the walls, which
suggest that he has a very Christian outlook despite being an atheist.
One of the most prominent crucifixes shown is a Jansenist portraying
Christ's arms pointing almost directly upwards, making their embrace
very narrow and thus representing the heretical belief that salvation was predestined and restricted to very few as Greene would have known. Dr. Winkler's waiting room reminded Martins of an antique shop—an antique shop that specialized in religious objets d'art. There were more crucifixes than he could count, none of later date probably than the seventeenth century. There were statues in wood and ivory. There were a number of reliquaries: little bits of bone marked with saints' names and set in oval frames on a background of tin foil. If they were genuine, what an odd fate it was, Martins thought, for a portion of Saint Susanna's knuckle to come to rest in Doctor Winkler's waiting room. Even the high-backed hideous chairs looked as if they had once been sat in by cardinals. The room was stuffy, and one expected the smell of incense. In a small gold casket was a splinter of the True Cross.
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
At
42:30 Holly returns to the scene of Harry’s accident from where the
porter calls to him from an upstairs window inviting Harry to return
later that evening.
.gif)
Holly and Anna arrive for their meeting with Karl the porter who witnessed Harry's 'accident' only to discover Karl has been murdered before a little boy the proclaims to the locals that Holly is the murderer.
.gif)
Martins and Anna leaving the latter's apartment on Am Hof which had been part of the Roman military camp of Vindobona. In the background is the main portal of the Armoury which was built by the on the site of
the former Jewish meat yard to house a municipal weapons supply for the
defence of Vienna.
A year before the filming of this scene, the Monument to the
Firefighters Murdered by Fascism was attached to the building designed
by the sculptor Mario Petrucci. It depicts a decapitated firefighter
carrying his head in his right arm, and is dedicated to the resistance
fighters Georg Weissel, Ludwig Ebhart, Josef Schwaiger, Rudolf Haider,
Hermann Plackholm and formally dedicated to the memory of Johann Zak.
More recently, as a result of a strong storm on June 21, 2007, a crane
set up for renovation damaged the roof and several monuments, killing
the crane operator. As Frederick Baker, who made the documentary Shadowing the Third Man relates,
"in Austria they were desperate to have films done; they had a film
industry left over and they were desperate to to get on with it and so
for example all those wet streets... it was the local fire brigade. If
your house had burnt down while The Third Man was being shot in Vienna
at this time you probably would have not had the fire brigade there
because they were all out helping Carol Reed hose down the street so he
could get one more stop on his camera." .gif)
.gif)
.gif)
46:30-
Returning that evening to the porter only to find him murdered, Holly
is accused by Little Hansel (48:25) who initiates a chase through the
streets of the town centre offering a series of remarkable shots of
atmospheric locations.
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
At
48:33 Martins and Anna navigate the ruined steps past St. Ruprecht's
church on Ruprechtsplatz. The location returns at 1:34:05 for another
chase with Lime the target. Before the war destroyed it, there was an house on the steep slope north of the church.
Martins chased through the streets of Vienna, a couple shown below as they appear today.
.gif)
.gif)
At
50:30 Martins finds himself an unwilling passenger in a taxi which
careens through several evocative streets such as Ulrichtplatz on the
left and Schoenlanterngasse
on the right, the latter making a later appearance during the hunt for
Lime. This scene on the right is fleeting but has the intriguing image
of a man hauling around a double bass outside its case through the
darkened streets of Vienna.
.gif)
Martins at 50:43 driven to the entrance of the Salesianerinnenkirche, a monastery founded
in 1719 which has been continuously inhabited by Salesian sisters of
the Ordo Visitatio Mariae but repurposed in the film as the headquarters
for the 'Internationales Transportkontor' where he finds himself having
to address the British Council next door, now the site of an
Austrian-themed restaurant. Despite the numerous changes from Graham
Greene's novella, this event is for the most part intact with Colonel
Calloway (as opposed to Major Calloway in the film) beginning the tale
by describing it as "an ugly story if you leave out the girl: grim and
sad and unrelieved, if it were not for that absurd episode of the
British Council lecturer"..gif)
The introduction to Harry Lime
.gif)
Standing at the doorway at Schreyvogelgasse 8 from where Lime makes his
first appearance. After leaving Anna's flat, Martins walks around the
streets, until he notices Anna's cat and realises someone is watching
from this darkened doorway. In a momentary flash of light, it is
revealed as Harry Lime. Martins calls out but Lime flees and vanishes.
Martins at first notes someone lurking in the shadows, but it isn't
until a light is suddenly turned on that the individual is revealed to
be Harry Lime. .gif)
There is a fish head on each side of the base which serves as a
gargoyle. When designing the fountain, Schmidt used a story from a
Viennese folk tale of “The Hanake,” considered the best barber in Vienna
and whom, if anyone had a headache, it was said was the only one who
could magic away all diseases of the head by cutting his hair. He also
liked to make the inn's customers his own, especially if they suggested
he had richer wallets. When the victims left the tavern after dark, many
would stumble and hit the sharp stones of the steep alley. To make it
easier to cause such an accident, the barber had prepared a thick wooden
club, which he carefully chose to hide at the drunken man's feet with
great skill. The saying “throw a beating at someone’s feet” is said to
owe its origins to this fairy tale. When the injured man cried out, the
barber's assistant appeared quite by chance in the doorway, looked after
the poor man with compassion, helped him to his feet and led him into
her master's house. There
he was immediately treated leading to the reward until a colleague's
competitive jealousy over his successes ultimately led to his exposure.
.gif)
.gif)
At 1:06:19 as Holly runs towards the door he almost gets hit by a speeding car; an impossibility given the closed location of the area as seen below. He finds Lime has fled.
.gif)
As Harry starts to run up Mölker Steig, where the Vienna city wall ran in the Middle Ages, Martins gives chase. Scenes like this allows the film to use the unique architecture of Vienna to enhance its
narrative. Eisner points out that the baroque architecture of the city,
with its grand buildings and shadowy alleyways, contributes to the
film's noir aesthetic. The contrast between the grandeur of the
buildings and their current state of disrepair serves as a visual
metaphor for the fallen state of Europe. The use of Dutch angles and
shadowy lighting further emphasise the sense of disorientation and moral
ambiguity. Critic Eisner points out that the characters in The Third
Man are often depicted as being in a state of existential crisis,
reflecting the broader psychological trauma experienced by the people of
post-war Vienna. The city's fragmented landscape and the prevalence of
the black market serve as external manifestations of the characters'
internal turmoil. This psychological dimension adds depth to the film's
portrayal of Vienna, making it a complex and multi-layered
representation of a city and its people grappling with the aftermath of
war. .gif)
Lime's
shadow seen at Shulhofplatz as he runs into Am Hof. In fact, the shadow
on the wall is actually that of assistant director Guy Hamilton who
would later direct a number of movies himself, including four Bond
movies- Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man with the Golden Gun. One movie would be filmed in Vienna- The Living Daylights. The original short story was set in Berlin, but given that Octopussy
had already just been filmed there, director John Glen felt he needed
to diversify and so he chose Vienna to both act as a setting and to
stand in for Bratislava, then still behind the Iron Curtain. More
recently Spectre was also filmed in Vienna by which time the Woke
direction of Bond- as with movies in general- finally ended my
enthusiasm for the films. Ian Fleming himself considered Vienna boring,
describing it in his 1963 book Thrilling Cities as "clean, tidy, God-fearing.".gif)
.gif)
Looking the other way at the same arch seen from Am Hof as Holly enters. The cherub statue was apparently a prop constructed for the scene.
.gif)
The kiosk covering the entrance to the sewers on Am Hof and the site today.
.gif)
.gif)
1:14:44
has Martins confronting Kurtz at his home on Morzinplatz 3 demanding to
see Lime. In response Kurtz and Dr. Winkel look down from a window
shown below with how the façade appears today.In the background the rubble is of the remains of Hotel Métropole which had served as the Gestapo Headquarters after having been confiscated by Reinhard Heydrich after
the anschluss. He'd set up the Vienna State Police Headquarters here and
decreed that the building would no longer be called the Hotel
Métropole. With 900 criminal police officers and many members of the ϟϟ,
the building was the largest Gestapo office in the Greater German
Reich; the Gestapo had a total of around 18,000 officers. In 1938, the
resistance group around Karl Burian planned to blow up the
headquarters using the hotel's construction plans provided for this
purpose by the former owner Markus Friediger, but the resistance group
was arrested before the plan could be realised. Friediger was
deported from Cologne to Riga with his wife Hedwig in 1941 and murdered.
.gif)
Over
five hundred people had to come into the building
every day for questioning, at the risk of being imprisoned. During the
interrogations and in the cells in the basement of the Hotel Métropole,
the prisoners were sometimes severely tortured by the Gestapo officers.
In the summer of 1938, the last Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, was
imprisoned here for months before he was
transferred to Munich. Schuschnigg “lived” in a room guarded in
eight-hour shifts by one guard and six sergeants at the same time, who
had to keep this duty secret- there'd been 21 men guarding Schuschnigg
alone. If a window was opened at the prisoner's request, he had to stay
in the room so that he could not be seen from the building opposite. He
also had to be accompanied by a guard to the hallway toilet; he was
allowed to shave himself under supervision. In the room next to
Schuschnigg, the wealthy banker Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild was held
prisoner under similar prison conditions for over a year and was only
released after he had given up all of his Austrian property. The
isolation of the prisoners was so rigorous that it was only after the
war that the inmates found out who was in the room next door. The first
head of the Vienna Gestapo headquarters from March 1938 to December 1944
was the Munich Criminal Police Officer and ϟϟ brigade leader Franz Josef Huber , who was also an inspector of the security police and the SD. He was replaced by the ϟϟ-Standartenführer
Rudolf Mildner. Despite their leading positions, both received only
mild punishment after the war. Until 1942 and from 1944 onwards, around a
third of the Vienna Gestapo's leadership staff consisted of Reich
Germans, with a quarter in between. The majority of the command staff
was selected from the previously “illegal Austrian National Socialists”
and adaptable police officers of the Schuschnigg regime.
On March 12,
1945, the former Métropole burned down in the heavy air raid on Vienna.
However, there are also witness statements according to which the fire
was set by the Gestapo themselves at the beginning of April 1945 in
order to destroy evidence, after relatively minor bomb damage.
After
the plan to build a memorial for the victims of the Nazis was
repeatedly delayed or failed, a memorial stone was erected and unveiled
on Morzinplatz without permission in 1951 as part of a political rally
by the concentration camp association which bore the inscription:
The Gestapo house was here. It was hell for the confessors of Austria; for many of them it was the forecourt of death. It has fallen into ruins like the 1000 year Reich. But Austria has risen again and with it our dead, the immortal victims.
In 1985, this memorial stone was replaced by the city of Vienna with the memorial that exists today designed by Leopold Grausam.
It consists of a bronze figure surrounded by eight granite blocks. The
top block bears the inscription “Never Forget” and is flanked by a red
chevron and a Jewish star. Another block bears the inscription of the
first memorial stone.
.gif)
1:15:20- The start of the iconic scene at the Ferris Wheel between Martins and Lime which ends with the so-called cuckoo clock speech. In the original novella, Holly and Harry were both English but were, as is typical in Hollywood, appropriated as Americans. The trap set for Lime, interrupted by the balloon seller
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
Schoenlanterngasse
makes its reappearance at the same time as Lime enters the trap.
Throughout this tour of Vienna using The Third Man, it becomes evident that the city is not
merely a setting but a central component of the film's narrative.
Vienna's physical ruins, its cultural heritage, linguistic diversity,
social dynamics, and the presence of the Allied forces all contribute to
the film's exploration of themes such as moral ambiguity, cultural
identity, and the psychological impact of war. The film's portrayal of
Vienna is a multifaceted and nuanced depiction of a city at a pivotal
moment in its history, reflecting the complexities and challenges of the
post-war period. The chase of Lime through the streets of Vienna
.gif)
The final scene at the Zentralfriedhof, one of the most devastating since City Lights. Anna won’t even look at Holly, not whilst dropping dirt in Harry’s grave, not whilst passing by the Jeep he’s standing by, not even acknowledging him standing in the road. He lights a cigarette in frustration and throws the match away...she has extinguished his flame without a word. The poetic power of silence in this closing scene is simply profound and contradicts the ending of Greene's novella.
A THAW SET IN that night, and all over Vienna the snow melted, and the ugly ruins came to light again: steel rods hanging like stalactites and rusty girders thrusting like bones through the grey slush. Burials were much simpler than they had been a week before when electric drills had been needed to break the frozen ground. It was almost as warm as a spring day when Harry Lime had his second funeral. I was glad to get him under earth again: but it had taken two men's deaths. The group by the grave was smaller now: Kurtz wasn't there, nor Winkler—only the girl and Rollo Martins and myself. And there weren't any tears.
.gif)
...
I watched him striding off on his overgrown legs after the girl. He caught her up and they walked side by side. I don't think he said a word to her: it was like the end of a story. He was a very bad shot and a very bad judge of character, but he had a way with Westerns (a trick of tension) and with girls (I wouldn't know what).
.gif)
