An Idea was Born (Brigitte Timmermann)
My personal love affair with THE THIRD
MAN began with little Hansl (“Yes, papa.
I saw it. That’s the murderer!”) and the
curiosity of an American friend. Could
I do him a favour and find out more
about the little boy? A name scribbled
in pencil on an old film-still put me on
his trail. I became curious. Where was
the Café Marc Aurel? Into which kiosk
did Harry Lime vanish? Where was the
balcony scene shot? I set about looking
for the countless and not easily identified
original locations, for the screenplay
was definitely not written in accordance
with the map of Vienna, and I began to
research in Austrian and English archives,
film institutes and libraries. Newspaper
articles, reviews, literary critical essays,
piles of photographs, and recordings of
radio and television interviews recalling
those post-war years all contributed to an
ever-growing collection. There ensued a
lively correspondence with all kinds of very
helpful registration officers, archivists and
people who simply wanted to share their
knowledge with me as well as fascinating
conversations with witnesses both from
Vienna and abroad. An increasingly
multi-faceted picture of THE THIRD MAN
and its time emerged. It was great fun
talking to Guy Hamilton in his house on
Majorca, with Elizabeth Montagu at her
family home in Beaulieu, and to discover
a British extra living in Melbourne, who
was cast as a Russian Officer, because he
had a “Slavic chin”.
As a student of English literature, I was
particularly interested to discover how
Graham Greene wove the Vienna which
he came to know on his reconnaissance
trips into the tapestry of his fiction
and to learn about the step-by-step
on-site collaboration with the director
to transform the original story into a
screenplay. As an historian, I was intrigued
by the factual history behind the story.
As a film buff, I was captivated by Carol
Reed’s imaginative photography of Vienna
and, as a tour guide, I could appreciate
the uniqueness of the locations and the
fact that despite the passage of time many
have remained virtually unchanged.
My growing enthusiasm was shared by
others, so a themed tour of Vienna’s Third
Man locations was the answer. Despite
initial doubts, it became a blockbuster
attracting local residents as well as people
from abroad, from English-speaking and
non-English speaking countries alike.
There are the fans of Orson Welles and
Harry Lime, and those with Anton Karas’
haunting zither score still in their ears,
Allied war veterans who had served in
Vienna, historians, film journalists, travel
editors, school classes and people who
work in film. Is there any other city in
the world which can offer such a range of
original locations from one single film?
As the making of the film had not yet been
fully recorded and its Austrian connections
and historic implications had not been
satisfactorily researched, the only logical
consequence was a new book. Where
else should it be written but in Vienna
– where all the threads came together? In
addition, it would be unforgivable not to
document the memories of a diminishing
number of witnesses. An aspect of history
would have been lost for ever – along with
a piece of film history.
Film institutes and film archives exist
to prevent old films from disappearing
into oblivion. However, the same cannot
always be said about the people who made those films, as the British film author
Charles Drazin (In Search of THE THIRD
MAN) once suggested. It is therefore for
the lovers of film to leave them a worthy
memorial. And a worthy memorial they
have deserved.
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