… THE THIRD MAN . Now that you know how Vienna looks like, it is easier to picture our favourite film.

The Third Man in Vienna

The Cast of the Third Man

Carol Reed (1906-1976) b. England. - director
"Carol Reed, upon graduation from school was interested in theatre and made a career as an actor from the mid 1920s, and later as a stage manager. He moved into film as a dialogue director to filmmaker Basil Dean and became a director himself in 1935, specialising in modestly budgeted dramas. He joined the British Army's documentary film unit during World War II, making training films. However, it was with the end of hostilities that Reed came into his own as a director" source Films include: Odd Man Out (made in Belfast) 1946 The Fallen Idol 1948 The Third Man (1949) Trapeze (1956) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) Oliver! (1968)


Graham Greene (1904 – 1991) - Screenplay
Henry Graham Greene was born on October 2, 1904 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Shy and sensitive, he did not like mixing with people. After a troubled time at school and college, and a career as a reviewer for the Times, he took interest in spirituality and politics which he admit caused him much moral turmoil. After graduating from Balliol College in Oxford with a B.A. in 1925, Greene was employed as a subeditor at the Nottingham Journal after two abortive positions at other companies. His dislike of Nottingham's seediness manifested in his later novel Brighton Rock, the style can be called “Moral anxiety” Later, he became a reviewer for the Times and the Spectator. His first novels were rejected by publishers but the success of Stamboul Train enabled him to earn a living out of his writings and he began his travels partly to satisfy his lust for adventure but also because he wanted to get informed about subjects that mattered to him. From Sweden to a 400 mile trip in Liberia, then he worked for the secret service in Sierra Leone, travelled through Mexico, visited Prague and Vienna (and witnessed the 1948 Communist changeover in Prague which disillusioned him about communism, after this he travelled to Vietnam during the Indochina War, Kenya during the Mau Mau outbreak, Stalinist Poland, Castro's Cuba, and Duvalier's Haiti. When he was physically unable to travel from the seventies on, he remained in the UK and later moved to Switzerland. He also visited Northern Ireland in his later years. He died in Vevey Switzerland in 1991

Brighton Rock (set in Brighton) The Man within The Fallen Idol, The Third Man (set in Vienna) Rumour at nightfall, The Name of the action Stamboul Train England Made Me (set in Sweden) Journey Without Maps (set in Liberia) The Heart of the Matter (Set in Sierra Leone) The Lawless Roads (set in Mexico) (1938) The Power and the Glory (Hawthornden Prize winner in 1941) The Comedians (set in Haiti) Our Man in Havanna (set in Cuba) Travel with my aunt Interview with Marie Francoise Allain.
Graham Greene was portrayed in a judgmental way in a few books, which I recommend not to read, not that I would recommend any of these books anyway. The best way to get informed about Graham Greene is to read his interviews, and fortunately “Interview with Marie Francoise Allain” is available.


Orson Welles (1915-1985) (on the right of picture)
- Harry Lime
Actor, stage actor, director (film and radio)
Drama course in USA, first engagement in Dublin, as a director he was a pupil of Austrian director Joseph von Sternberg (married to Marlene Dietrich) who made “The Blue Angel” and later emigrated to the USA.
Radio play: 1931 – War of the worlds
Films: Citizen Kane (incl. Director) 1941 The Magnificent Ambersons (incl. Director) 1942 The Stranger (1946) The Lady from Shanghai (1947) Macbeth (1947) The Third Man (1948) Othello (1951) Confidential Report (1955) Touch of Evil (1957) The Trial (after Kafka): (1963) Casino Royale, Malperthuis

Joseph Cotten (born 1905 died 1994) USA. (on the left of the picture) plays : Holly Martins

Stage actor in Miami and New York, 1939 member of the Theatre Guild, recruited by Orson Welles for films.
Films: Citizen Kane (1941) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Gaslight (1944) Love letters (1945) Duel in the Sun (1947) The Third Man (1948) Portrait of Jenny (1949) The Steel Trap (1952)
Did a TV programme for Yorkshire Television and read a poem called “Desiderata” 1975)
Trevor Howard (born 1916- died 1988) England. Plays: Major Calloway
Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Started playing on stage in 1933
Films: The way ahead (1943) The way to the stars (1943) Brief encounter (1946) The Third Man
The Outcast of the Islands (1953) The Heart of the Matter (1954) The Key (1957)


Alida Valli (born Alida Maria Altenburger in Pola). Italy. - Anna Schmidt
Attended the Centro Sperimentale Cinematografico in Rome, own theatre.

Films: I due sergenti (1936) Manon Lescaut (1939) Luce nelle tenebre (1941) Le due orphanelle (1942) Circo equestre Za-Bum (1943) T'amero sempre (1943) Il canto della vita (1945) The Paradine Case (1947) Walk softly stranger (1950) Les Amants de Tolede (1952) Senso (1953) Il Grido (1957) Les Bijoutiers du clair de lune (known as The Night Heaven fell)(1957) La grande strada azzura (1958) Arsene Lupin et la Toison d'or (1959) Eyes without a face (1960) El valle de las espadas (The Castillian) (1963) La primera notte di quiete (1972)


Ernst Deutsch (born in Prague 1890, died Vienna 1969) - Baron Kurtz

Educated in Prague, acquainted to Max Brod and Franz Werfel . Theatre in Prague (Kafka, the Trial) and Vienna. Emigrated to the USA in 1938 via London. Moved back to Austria in 1947. Vienna National Theatre (Burgtheater, Vienna) and Schillertheater in Berlin).
Films : Rache der Toten (Revenge of the dead) 1916 Geisha und Samurai Das alte Gesetz (1923) Gildi eine von uns (Gildi, one of us) 1932 So ends our night (1941) Der Prozess (1947) The Third Man (1948) Sebastian Kneipp
Theatre: Nathan der Weise (written by G.E. Lessing)


Siegried Breuer (Vienna: 1906-1954) - Popescu
Member of the Vienna Volkstheater, the German Theatre in Prague, the Aussig Theatre, Josefstadt Theatre in Vienna.

Films: Anushka (1941) The Third Man (1948) Unter den Sternen von Capri (1953)

Paul Hoerbiger (Budapest 1894, died 1981 in Vienna) plays: The Porter
Reichenberg Ensemble in Vienna, and Vienna. Was arrested in 1945 by German police for espionage and sentenced to death. His sister in law Paula Wessely intervened in his favour and the liberation the sentence to be carried. Actor, newspaper editor and singer
Films: Spione (1928) Der Kongress tanzt (1931) Liebelei (1933) Petersburger Nächte (the nights of Petersburg) 1934 Opernball (1939) Wiener G’schichten (Viennese stories) 1940 Der Liebe Augustin (1940) Wen die Götter lieben (1942) Der alte Sünder (1951) And many others

Music: Wienerlieder
Editor of „Neues Osterreich“ (1945)


ANTON KARAS - Film score
- b. July 7, 1906 in Vienna; d. January 9, 1985 in Vienna
“Raised in the Brigittenau district of Vienna, he began studying the zither at the age of 12. The story goes that one day he found an old zither in an attic. His father allowed him to take lessons. This started with Professor Spiegel at Musikschule Horack and ended studying under the zither virtuouso Adolf Schneer. Karas began playing at wine gardens at the age of 17. This he continued to do for the next 28 years, until his meeting with Carol Reed. As the fame of the music from The Third Man spread, he began performing all over Europe, including a 32 week tour of the United States in 1951. In 1952, he opened his Weinschenke Zum Dritten Mann in the Sievering district of Vienna. He continued playing at his wine garden, which had varying degrees of success, over the years. In addition, he made special performances and recordings. He retired from the wine garden when it was bought out by a chain. Directly after his success with the movie The Third Man, Karas had his dream zither made. This zither use acoustic amplification of the accompaniment and base strings (often overpowering the melody strings). This amplification was achieved by leaving the instruments thickness on the fretboard side of about one inch. However, the thickness on the opposite side was increased almost two-fold! Several of this type were made, and were known as "Karas-zithern" by the Austrian music trade. The attached photo shows him at one of these zithers. He did not play this type of zither until after the advent of The Third Man.” . ”. His compositions include:
"The Third Man Theme" "The Second Theme", "Café Mozart Waltz", "Keine Ahnung", "Zither Man", "Mein Herz Binkerl-Waltz", "Visions of Vienna", "Danube Dream", "Wien, Weib, Wein", "Karasitaten".

Robert Krasker, director of photography
Born: August 21, 1913 in Perth, Australia, died 1981) Australia born cinematographer Robert Krasker joined the film industry in France; in 1930 he moved to England where he began working as a camera operator on such films as The Four Feathers and The Thief of Bagdad. Soon he rose to become a prominent lighting...
Director of Photography: Henry V (1944), Brief Encounter (1945), Caesar and Cleopatra (1946), Odd Man Out (1946),The Fallen Idol 1948, The Third Man (1948) Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) Another Man's Poison (1952)Never Let Me Go (1953) Romeo and Juliet (1954) Senso (1954) Alexander the Great (1956) Trapeze (1956) The Quiet American (1958) Romanoff and Juliet (1961) El Cid (1961) Billy Budd (1962)The Heroes of Telemark (1965)The Collector (1965) plus: Great Expectations Brief Encounter, Thief of Bagdad, The Four Feathers, The Fallen Idol, Other members of the cast include: Erich Ponto: Dr Winkel
Bernard Lee: Sgt. Paine
Wilfrid Hyde White: Mr Crabbin
Hedwig Bleibtreu: Anna's landlady
Alexis Chesnakov: Commander Brodsky
Annie Rosar: Porter's wife
Herbert Halbik: Hansel

Photography: Robert Krasker
Produced: Alexander Korda

The Third Man and Vienna

Pasnakomtis Pajalusta. Herzlich Willkommen in Wien!

Ia ie gavariu pa-russki – I do not speak Russian. It is difficult to stand for a personality who has made a name with numerous readings and speeches. Comrade Professor Kulyakin is unable to attend this evening because he was invited to a symposium at the eminent Cambridge University, and will make his speech in fluent English. I am sorry that I speak so little Russian, and I ask our guests for forgiveness in the spirit of friendship. Please take the impression of this day back home with you, and if Voina I Mir – Sergei Bondarschuk’s cinematic version of Leon Tolstoi War and Peace means something to you, then it was right to make the effort to reproduce every detail in pictures.
The subject of the evening is called „Relationship between History, Literature and Film”. Professor Kulyakin disserted on it with an English writer called Graham Greene. Just like Heinrich Mann, Graham Greene possesses the skills of an observer and the idealism of the witness. Now, many people know that Graham Greene was in charge of the screenplay for “The Third Man” a film made in 1948 and set in our city of Vienna. The piece that I played on the piano earlier on was the Third Man Theme composed by Anton Karas for the Zither. When Graham Greene did his research work and visited Prague, he became a witness of the Prague Revolution of 1948. Very few writers wrote about central Europe, but Martha Gellhorn, was in Prague ten years before in the time between the Austrian Anschluss and the Treaty of Munich, inspired by this, she wrote “A stricken Field”, which was dedicated to her then husband Ernest Hemingway. Graham Greene wrote a document of our times, not about Prague in 1948, but about Vienna in times when the four allies appeared in public as a quadriga. The Four Men in a Jeep. Things changed in 1949, the world split up and the Cold War started. So the Third Man is a so-called historical tableau, a picture of times past. I wonder what Tolstoi would have made out of this… It is a Viennese film, and everyone who wants to get acquainted to our town, should watch it.
As a Viennese I love this film and I hate it at the same time. But why? Let me explain.

I love this film because of Orson Welles. He IS the Third Man. The author Graham Greene, the director Carol Reed and Orson Welles, who learnt his craft from Austrian-born director Josef von Sternberg. The ones amongst you who read Heinrich Mann will know that not only was he a good friend of the roving reporter Egon Erwin Kish, but also might know a film called “The Blue Angel” with Marlene Dietrich based on a novel by Heinrich Mann. Orson Welles learnt a lot from Sternberg – and that is the multilayered pictures, less the historical tableau. So you don’t end up with a finished painting but with pictures that ask questions. Orson Welles gives a grand and enigmatic performance to a role, which he wrote himself. One of the layers is about friendship and betrayal. It is easy to betray when things are clear and one knows that one trusted the wrong person, or served the wrong cause, but what happens when what is wrong is part of us – or our best friend? This is not easy to answer. To put such a dilemma in pictures, you need to tread lightly with an empathy that Carol Reed possesses. Casting Robert Krasker as the director of photography and Anton Karas for the music score, a score so simple and yet so compelling, that makes him in my eyes one of the best directors. Think of these suggestive photo-realistic pictures and you might be reminded of Sergei Eisenstein’s scene with the pram falling down the steps. In the Third Man, you will remember the scene of Orson Welles fingers which desperately reach out for freedom from the sealed canal grid as the wind blows. No, you can’t open the grid and he lost his freedom. We should hate him, and we must what is to do. And now we understand how his friend Holly Martins aka Joseph Cotten feels – the trash fiction novelist whom Graham Greene regards as his alter ego. Harry Lime did an evil thing, Officer Calloway played by Trevord Howard showed him the proof, and the film shows us the proof as it makes us follow them into the ward of the Preyr’sische Children Hospital and see a nurse throwing a teddy bear away into a basket. You don’t see the victim but only these suggestive images. To me a dignified way of showing tragedy.


Joseph Cotten (Holly Martins) & Orson Welles (Harry Lime) in Vienna

Am I complaining about the story? It is the story of drifting writer Holly Martins, played by Joseph Cotten who comes to Vienna to visit his friend Harry lime – Orson Welles – to learn not only that he might have died under mysterious circumstances, but that he also was a black market racketeer. Holly is dismayed and wants to know the truth about his friend. This can’t be! So he finds out that Harry is alive but he has really become a ruthless black market racketeer. In the famous wheel scene, Harry explains that his idealism and maybe faith have long gone and that people do no longer matter to him, perhaps only his girlfriend Anna. Holly who has met Anna and has fond feelings for her wants to save her life, so after he learns the truth about Harri from Officer Calloway he co-operates with the military police to get Harry arrested. Anna wants to decide herself about her life and as she is in love with Harry she warns him and he manages to escape the first arrest and disappears into the canal, after a frantic pursuit in the canal, Harry shoots Sgt Paine played by Bernard Lee whom Holly got to know well, and Holly shoots Harry who knows he cannot escape and realises that he had done wrong. So in the end, this is about a man who saves his friend in what is an utter tragedy. What makes the actors credible is that Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten were good friends in real life and they did two films together “Citizen Kane” and “Amberson”, it was Cotten who had suggested Reed to cast Orson Welles as the Third Man, first choice would have been Noel Coward. Orson Welles has always impressed me. In a film called “The Stranger” he plays the role of a mysterious clockmaker in a small US town who betrays his Nazi origins as an evil doctor with a slip of the tongue “But Marx was a Jew too!”. In the Third Man you see the clock again, this time it is Harry Lime who praises the Borgias and mocks the fraternal peace in Switzerland a country that invented the cuckoo-clock. Later, Orson Welles explained that he wrongly attributed the cuckoo-clock to Switzerland whilst it is an invention from the German Black Forest. Orson Welles is a convincing villain, because in real life he was a convinced idealist, and that reminds me of a sentence I read somewhere “I speak the same language as my oppressors”.
And there it is. A story about friendship, love, betrayal. And emptiness. Anna walking past Holly out of camera is the strongest final cinematographic scene I have seen. This leaves us with a feeling of emptiness, whilst so many other films prefer a happy ending to round up things. I know, like many others, that life is not a fairy tale and so I don’t expect happy ends with trumpets and drumrolls, nor would I want a tragedy with melodrama where everything dies and wails in style like you find with Shakespeare and Goethe. Carol Reed did not want to make a melodrama, and that is why he did not want suave Noel Coward to play Harry Lime, who was suggested by producer Alexander Korda, nor did he wish for an orchestral score to illustrate his film. I do believe that he wanted to re-create the same atmosphere as his previous film Odd Man Out set in Belfast and shot on location. This is why you have Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Anton Karas who does the score. Greene and friends are no friends of operatic pathos, this false pain, so it is authenticity they want, it should flow like a river. They could not find a happy ending to this story that could have sounded true, and this is why the story ends up with a question mark.

Alida Valli (=Anna Schmid)

I also like this film because the local population is woven into the story. Do you know this sentimental schmaltz called “The Sound of Music”? I don’t like that film at all. In the Third Man, you can see that Vienna and the Viennese are part of the screenplay and the roles are cast with much detail. I avoid the synchronisation made for the German version of the film because in the original version everyone speak the way they normally do. When Holly doesn’t understand what the porter says, Anna explains to it to him, or you see the porter making an effort finding a way to explain things in English. It is nearly done in a documentary style. Calloway speaks English-English, Holly and Harry speak American-English, the porter speaks Viennese-German and struggles with English, Baron Kurz and Popescu speak English very well, whilst Dr Winkel does not at all. Mr Crabbin from the Cultural institute speaks with a posh language and Sgt Paine has a common way of talking. Only Anna’s role is linguistically not accurate. Alida Valli is supposed to play a Sudete German, a German from Czech Bohemia and in fact Ms Altenburger comes from South Tyrol. But I am not complaining about this, because she is the ideal cast. Watch her in a film called Senso made in 1953 and you will see her again in this role of a woman victim of passion.

Siegfried Breuer (Cooler the Humanitarian, Popescu)
Greene did not want to make an Austrian film, this is what he says about our style: “> „An Austrian film and you know what that means: it means Magda Schneider’s deep-sunk eyes and porcine coquetry; courtyards where everyone in turn picks up a song as they mend cars, clean windows, wash clothes; a festival in a beer garden with old Viennese costumes. Balloons, slides, laughter, and driving home in a fiacre; Magda Schneider’ trim buttock and battered girlishness ; a musical tour of Vienna - no sign of course of the Karl-Marx-Hof, only palaces and big baroque dictatorial buildings.“. Oh yes, he is right, so many Heurigen wine restaurants, and so many stories about our precious heimat, with our darlings Paul Hoerbiger, Hans Moser, Anni Rosar. Cinematic fantasies, so many operettas were composed here. The Magic Flute music by Mr Mozart and text by Mr Schikaneder, dream pictures with waltzes, opera ball and costumes, and people who have such fantasies sing “Vienna, oh you city of my dreams” along a film by Willy Forst. And why so? Because we do not want to be reminded of the sorrow, or the sadness, or the past because only those who have a heart of gold will be shattered whilst the opportunist like Popescu Cooler the Humanitarian just go on with a cynical grin. Greene, himself a victim of his permanent sadness, was not able to find a way of cheering himself up and yet, because he articulates the despair of permanent sadness, the turmoils and the nightmares, he speaks to my heart and I understand.

Final Scene, Camera: Robert Krasker


When I read Greene I get the impression that he wants to protect the victims of sadness, or violence. “Violence is the occupational hazard of the weak” did he say. Or the occupational hazard of the idealists, the passionate. He was a socio-realist and this film should protect the hearts of gold, by taking the luring illusions away and show the truth. At least, you don’t get caught in traps. Truth is our salvation. There is no happy end to this story, because the story is unfinished, it goes on, some did survive the story and they must search for their answers, or search for love… And this is a good thing.
Und der Mann ist Arzt.


Ernst Deutsch (Baron Kurz)

And that is Vienna!

Vienna... what can I say about Vienna! If I spoke to a stranger I would say. We are not characters from operettas, we do not seduce our visitors with Mozart chocolate, nor do our horses do panto dancing, many of us are not professional musicians, and many of those cannot even play Mozart, and most people cannot dance properly or at all. Oh no, not all get comedy drunk and break mirrors and become poets writing odes to the wine. Most of the time punch drunken people look stupid, funny or obscene. The newspaper says that we sell our soul and the town because we are desperate for money and attention, hence we sell ourselves to tourists and we sell them kitsch. The newspaper is offensive, I sincerely hope that most of us avoid the red light district mentality and that the souvenir makes put some love in their craft. There is nothing wrong in doing the place up a bit and say that it is beautiful, of course there is something wrong when the come hither look is put on and the moneyless wayfarer ignored. I know that some people say red one day and blue the next, but can they do if they cannot decide, or if they don’t know the answers? I don’t know what happens in a single human heart, may I say, referring to a Graham Greene sentence from “The Heart of the Matter”. Because of this multilayered approach, the characters are not clear cut, you have the weak porter who is played by Paul Hoerbiger, an opiniated friendly well-loved actor. The shifty Baron Kurtz who has a charming but deadly aura is played by Prague born actor Ernst Deutsch who was very influenced by the writings of Franz Kafka and hence had spiritual interests. The most mysterious character, the one that frightens me in the film is the introverted Dr Winkel played by the enigmatic Erich Ponto.


Paul Hörbiger (Portier)

So why does this film upset me every time I see it. I should love it. I do love it. That film is part of me, I grew up with it. I belong to the generation that was born during the last war. Just like Greene I have never witnessed Vienna in the old days of the monarchy. I was born in 1942. Like Greene I can say: “I have never known Vienna between the wars, and I am too young to remember the old Vienna with its Strauss music and the fake superficial charm…” To him it was just a city of undignified ruins, which February transformed in a snowy landscape. I grew up in this city, and now they built up the ruins and I am twenty five. Sometimes I feel much older. Sadness, bitterness and memories have marked many people here and the frivolity on the Vienna streets or on colourful pictures is superficial. The snow in those films are icy sugar like a snowball from Hernals. Paul Hoerbiger, like a few Austrians, was sentenced to death because of his resistance against the NS regime, thanks to the intervention of his sister in law Paula Wessely he survived and then the town was liberated by the Red Army and he was free. So when Paul Hoerbiger entertains his audience you can feel that he has gone through sadness and tragedy and that is why many people love him so much. In the Third Man he plays a porter with a heart of gold who has seen a tragedy, and refused to testify, when he did so, he signed his death sentence. And everytime I watch this film, I get upset for that very reason.
And so this is the end of my speech. Many of you people do not understand the language of this town, but never mind many things are universal and do not need words. I would like to say this. When Graham Greene visited this town in 1948, he saw a place he did not know, he was commissioned by producer Alexander Korda, who, before the war was one of Austria’s most gifted directors at Sascha Films. Those very Sascha Films who produced Willy Forst the maker escapist fantasies who cheered up so many people during the war. When the war was over, Korda now working for“London Films” wanted to make a film about his old town as they had just repaired the Ferris Wheel in the Prater. The Ferris Wheel that was spinning again in 1948. So indeed we need social realism in film and literature to portray the present. And the present is today. Once we close an old book from a different time, Tolstoi for some, Kafka for some others, or the curtain falls after an old film like the Third Man, we look at the calendar, and see that today is May 1966 and I am in Vienna.
. So we must live in the present, we must take charge of it. Everyone must take charge of their life, whatever origin and whatever creed, profession, income, whatever. We can be inspired by history or books, or films, or talks, but we must be in charge of our destiny. In that sense, I am closing my speech, and I thank everyone for listening to me. I don’t know what goes in your heart, as Greene would say, I don’t even know what goes on in his heart, so the best I can do is to follow my heart and be inspired by those who touch me. Sometimes I get fooled and it is a story of betrayal, and sometimes my passion leads me to my perdition, but sometimes I find my answers, a missing piece of the puzzle and then I am glad to have met this source of inspiration, and maybe found a new friend, or a new song, or a new book, or a new piece of information. All worth to be treasured with love
Thank you!
Stefan Votova
Librarian, Vienna, born 1942 - Speech made in May 1966 at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna.
Guten Abend, Dobry Vecer
Pasnakomtis Pajalusta. Herzlich Willkommen in Wien!

Ia nje gavariu pa-russki (= ich spreche keinen Russisch), Ia gavariu Avstriski (= iche spreche österreichisch) Es ist sehr schwer eine Persönlichkeit zu vertreten, die sich mit Lesungen und Vorträgen einen Namen gemacht hat. Genosse Professor Kulyakin kann heute abend nicht hier sein, weil er in der eminenten Cambridge University zu einem Symposium eingeladen wurde, und seine Rede in einem fliessenden English halten wird. Es tut mir Leid, dass ich noch zu wenig Russisch kann, und ich bitte unsere Gäste um Verzeihung im Geiste der Freundschaft. Nehmen Sie Ihre Eindrücke des heutigen Tages mit nach Hause, und ich bin mir sicher, dass wenn Voina i Mir etwas für Sie bedeutet, dann war es richtig, sich die Mühe zu geben, das Werk derart wahrheitsgetreu in Bildern zu setzen.

Das Thema des heutigen Abends handelt vom Verhältnis zwischen Geschichte, Literatur und Film. Professor Kulyakin dissertierte im heurigen Jahr darüber mit einem Englischen Schriftsteller namens Graham Greene. Ebenso wie Heinrich Mann besitzt Graham Greene die Beobachtungsfähigkeit und der Idealismus eines Zeitzeugens. Nun viele wissen, dass Graham Greene für das Drehbuch des Dritten Mannes, ein Britischer Film aus dem Jahre 1949, das sich in unserer Stadt abspielt, verantwortlich ist. Das Harry Lime Thema von Anton Karas habe ich eingangs gespielt. Als Graham Greene für diesen Film recherchierte und sich in Prag aufhielt wurde er Zeuge der Prager Revolution von 1948. Wenige Schriftsteller haben über Mitteleuropa berichtet, doch Martha Gellhorn, hielt sich zehn Jahre zuvor in Prag in der Zeit zwischen den Anschluss und den Münchner Abkommen, daraus ist ihr Buch: „A sticken Field“ entstanden, Ernest Hemingway gewidmet. Auch Graham Greene schrieb ein Zeitdokument, allerdings nicht über Prag im Jahre 1948, sondern über Wien, in einer Zeit als die vier Alliierten noch als Quadrille auftraten. Ab 1949 ist alles anders, die Welt spaltet sich auf. Der Dritte Mann ist ein sogenanntes Historisches Tableau - ein Bild aus einer anderen Zeit. Was hätte Leo Tolstoj daraus gemacht, wundere ich mich? Es ist ein wienerischer Film, und jeder der unsere Stadt kennenlernen möchte, sollte es sich ansehen.

Als Wiener liebe ich diesen Film und ich hasse es zugleich. Warum ist es so?

Ich liebe diesen Film, wegen Orson Welles. Er ist der Dritte Mann. Der Autor Graham Greene, der Regisseur Carol Reed, und Orson Welles, der seine Kunst von Joseph von Sternberg gelernt hat. Leute die Heinrich Mann gelesen haben, werden wissen, dass Joseph von Sternberg der Blaue Engel mit Marlene Dietrich gedreht hat. Orson Welles hat vieles von Sternberg gelernt, und das ist die Vielschichtigkeit der Bilder und der Charakterisierung der Figuren. Im Dritten Mann gibt es vielschichtige Bilder und weniger historische Tableaux, und Orson Welles gibt eine grandiose und enigmatische Persönlichkeit einer Rolle, die er selbst geschrieben hat. Es ist ein mit vielschichtigen Themen, wie die der Freundschaft und des Verrates. Es ist leicht zu verraten, wenn Dinge klar sind und man weiss, dass man den falschen Freund getraut, die falsche Causa gedient hat, doch was ist wenn, was falsch ist, teil von uns ist - oder unser bester Freund? Da macht man es sich nicht leicht. Eine solche Problematik, ja Konflikt, bildlich verständlich zu zeigen bedarf viel Einfühlsamkeit, die Carol Reed besitzt, und dass dieser auch noch Robert Krasker an der Kamera hatte und den Talent von Anton Karas des Cafe Mozarts entdeckte, macht ihm zu einem der grössten Regisseure überhaupt. Denken sie an diese photo-realitische Bilder voller Symbolik, und sie erinnern sich an Sergei Eisenstein und diese Szene mit dem Kinderwagen und der Stiege, im Dritten Mann sind es wohl die Finger von Orson Welles die sich an den Gittern des Kanaldeckels verzweifelt klammern als der Wind weht. Der Deckel lässt sich nicht öffnen, seine Freiheit hat er verloren. Wir müssten ihn hassen, weil er doppelt und dreifach und vielfach verraten hat, und doch sind wir mit ihm solidarisch, wir wollen ihn retten... wir können ihn nicht verraten, und wir müssen es doch tun und abdrücken. So verstehen wir was sein Freund Holly Martins durchmacht - den Charakter den Graham Greene als alter ego sieht. Harry Lime hat böses getan, der englische Offizier Calloway, gespielt von Trevor Howard zeigt es ihm, und der Film zeigt es uns, als wir eine Station des Preyr’ischen Kinderspitals mit ihnen betreten und dort eine Krankenschwester sehen die einen Teddybären in einer Kiste wirft, man sieht nicht das verstorbene Opfer, sondern nur diese Bilder.



Joseph Cotten (Holly Martins) & Orson Welles (Harry Lime) in Vienna

Sollte ich mich über die Geschichte beschweren? Es ist die Geschichte des treibenden Schriftstellers Holly Martins, gespielt von Joseph Cotten, der nach Wien kommt um seinen Freund Harry Lime - Orson Welles – zu besuchen und dort erfährt, nicht nur dass dieser mysteriösen Umständen ums Leben gekommen sein soll, sondern auch, dass der ein Schieber war. Es stellt sich heraus, dass Harry noch am Leben ist, und Holly letztendlich nach langem Gewissenskonflikt, und weil er Harrys Freundin - Anna Schmidt gespielt von Alida Valli, das Leben retten möchte, mit der Britischen Militärpolizei geleitet von Calloway, arbeitet um ihn zu fassen. Holly erschiesst Harry. Die zwei Freunde Welles und Cotten waren auch ein Team, das privat und beruflich viel zusammen war, denke man an Citizen Kane oder die Ambersons. Orson Welles hat mich in einem Film „The Stranger“ sehr beeindruckt – darin spielt er ein Nazi der sich in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt als Uhrmacher versteckt, und sich damit verrät, dass er seinem Antisemitismus in Form der Bemerkung „Marx war doch auch Jude“ ausdrückt. Im Dritten Mann, spottet Harry Lime über die Kuckuckuhr, die er den Schweizern zuschreibt – später erkläre Orson Welles, dass die Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhren machen. Harry Lime bewundert die Borgias, und spottet auf den brüderlichen Frieden der Schweiz. Welche psychologische Tiefe! Ich bewundere Orson Welles, denn er stellt das Böse sehr realistisch dar.

So es ist eine Geschichte von Freundschaft, Liebe, Verrat. und auch der Leere. Wie Anna am Ende an Holly vorbeigeht ausser Sicht der Kamera ist die stärkste Endszene eines Films, die ich jemals gesehen habe. Dieses Gefühl der Leere, wo doch viele Filme lieber das erbauliche Happy End bevorzugen... Ich weiss, genauso wie viele andere, dass das Leben kein Märchen ist, und daher erwarte ich keine Happy Ends mit Pauken und Trompeten und Tusch, oder gar, die melodramatische Version der Tragödie, wo alles stirbt und heult, wie bei Shakespeare oder Goethe. Carol Reed war strict dagegen, dass Noel Coward, der britische suave Melodram star die Rolle des Harry Limes spielt, und auch gegen eine orchestralische Untermalung seines Films, er stellte sich den Dritten Mann als das Nachfolgewerk seines Odd Man Out, den er in Belfast an Originalschauplätzen drehte. Daher Orson Welles als Harry Lime und Anton Karas als Musikverantwortlicher. Bei Greene und seine Freunde werden wir niemals den Pathos finden, dieses gekünstelte theatralische Schmerz, sondern Schlichtheit, nach dem Motto, alles fliesst wie ein Fluss.

Ich liebe dieser Film, weil die Lokalbevölkerung nicht in einer Tapete zu Statisten verblasst. Kennen Sie diesen sentimentalen Hollywood Schmalz „The Sound of Music“ ? Mir gefällt dieser Film überhaupt nicht. Im Dritten Mann ist Wien und die Wiener teil des Drehbuchs und die Rollen akkurat besetzt. Ich würde auf die deutsche Synchronfassung gerne verzichten, denn in der Originalfassung redet jeder so wie er sprechen soll. Beispielsweise, sollte unser Abend hier verfilmt werden, dann wird man Russisch und Deutsch hören, eine russische synkronisierte Version von mir oder eine deutsche Synkron von Genossin Loran klinge... unecht. Der Dritte Mann will realistisch klingen, es ist in der Originalfassung fast wie ein Dokumentarfilm. Hier spricht einer Englisch, ein anderer Amerikanisch, der Portier versucht Englisch zu reden, und der Baron Kurz kann English. Nur die Figur die von Alida Valli gespielt wurde folgt dies Prinzip nicht: Sie ist Österreicherin aus Südtirol und spielt eine Sudetin. Nur ein sehr kleiner Schönheitsfehler. Und die Filmmusik, gespielt von Anton Karas, schlichte Themen an der Zither, ist typisch wienerisch und passt zum kargen Film genau richtig.


Alida Valli (=Anna Schmid)

Greene wollte keinen Österreichischen Film machen, dies sagte er über unseren Kino: „An Austrian film and you know what that means: it means Magda Schneider’s deep-sunk eyes and porcine coquetry; courtyards where everyone in turn picks up a song as they mend cars, clean windows, wash clothes; a festival in a beer garden with old Viennese costumes. Balloons, slides, laughter, and driving home in a fiacre; Magda Schneider’ trim buttock and battered girlishness ; a musical tour of Vienna - no sign of course of the Karl-Marx-Hof, only palaces and big baroque dictatorial buildings.“ Oh, ja, recht hat er, so viele Heurigen und Heimatgeschichten, mit unseren Lieblingen Paul Hörbiger, Hans Moser, Anni Rosar. Filmische Fantasien, schliesslich wurden hier sehr viele Operetten komponiert, diese Filme sind nicht immer historische doch recht unterhaltsame sentimentale Tableaux , und keineswegs historisch akkurat. Es ist alles Walzer, mit Opernball oder Trachten, und die Leute, die an solchen Fantasien noch glauben, singen die Schlager „Wien du Stadt meiner Träume“. Wir erinnern uns nicht gerne an die Bitterkeit, die Traurigkeit oder die Vergangenheit, weil nur diese daran zerbrechen die eine gute Seele haben, während die Opportunisten einfach zynisch weitermachen.


Siegfried Breuer (Cooler the Humanitarian, Popescu)

Final Scene, Camera: Robert Krasker



Ernst Deutsch (Baron Kurz)

Ja, und das ist das Wien

Also warum sollte ich diesen Film hassen? Ich sollte es lieben. Ich habe den Film als Kleinkind erlebt, und bin sozusagen damit aufgewachsen. Ich gehöre der Generation des Nachkrieges. Auch ich kannte nicht Wien so wie es früher war. Das Wien der Donaumonarchie, ich bin Jahrgang 1942. Wie Graham Greene kann ich sagen: Ich habe nicht Wien zwischen den beiden Kriegen gekannt, und ich bin zu jung um mich an das Alt Wien mit seiner Strauss Musik und falschen seichten Charm zu erinnern...“ Für ihn war es einfach eine Stadt in unwürdigen Trümmern, welche der Februar in grosse Schnee- und Eisgletscher verwandelte. Ich bin in einer solchen Stadt aufgewachsen, und nun sind die Ruinen aufgebaut und ich bin fünfundzwanzig. Mir kommt es aber vor, ich wäre viel älter. Traurigkeit, Bitterkeit und Erinnerungen haben viele Leute hier geprägt, und diese Unbeschwertheit auf den Wiener Gassen von heute oder auf bunten Bildern der Postkarten ist seicht. Der Schnee in diesen Filmen ist Staubzucker und Zuckerguss, in einer Stadt wie eine exquisite Schneekugel aus Hernals - Paul Hörbiger, wie manche Österreicher war in der Widerstand gegen den Faschismus und von der NS Diktatur zum Tode verurteilt, doch dank der Fürsprache seiner Schwägerin Paula Wessely und dann der Befreiung der Stadt durch die Rote Armee wurde das Urteil nicht vollstreckt. So Paul Hörbiger, wenn er unterhält, tut dies mit einer Wehmut in seinem Schauspiel. In der Tat, im Dritten Mann spielt einen gutmütigen Portier, der Zeuge war und nicht aussagte, - als er sich dazu entschloss, war es sein Todesurteil.



Paul Hörbiger (Portier)

Zum Abschluss möchte ich noch dies sagen: Und wie viele von euch verstehen unsere Sprache! Zum Abschluss möchte ich noch dies sagen: Als Graham Greene die Stadt im Jahre 1948 besuchte, sah er eine Stadt deren Sprache er nicht kannte, er kam im Auftrag von Produzenten Alexander Korda, in einem früheren Leben als der Starregisseur bei der Wiener Sascha Films bekannt war. Jene Sascha Films, die mit Willi Forst die träumerische Fantasien produzierten, welche viele Älteren in Wien durch den Zweiten Weltkrieg trugen. Unser Wien überlebte den Faschismus, weil wir eine Exiltraumwelt erschaffen konnten. Später war es Zeit, Wien neu aufzubauen und der Produzent von Sascha Films, der nun London Films betrieb, war da, nun dreht sich das Riesenrad, unser Wahrzeichen neben dem Steffl, und somit denke ich, dass wir den Realismus im Film brauchen, wenn er uns aufbauen kann. Wir können einen Spiegel auf die wahre Welt gebrauchen. Unsere neue Republik ist elf Jahre alt, und sie baut sich auf.

So we must live in the present, we must take charge of it. Everyone must take charge of their life, whatever origin and whatever creed, profession, income, whatever. We can be inspired by history or books, or films, or talks, but we must be in charge of our destiny. In that sense, I am closing my speech, and I thank everyone for listening to me. I don’t know what goes in your heart, as Greene would say, I don’t even know what goes on in his heart, so the best I can do is to follow my heart and be inspired by those who touch me. Sometimes I get fooled and it is a story of betrayal, and sometimes my passion leads me to my perdition, but sometimes I find my answers, a missing piece of the puzzle and then I am glad to have met this source of inspiration, and maybe found a new friend, or a new song, or a new book, or a new piece of information. All worth to be treasured with love
Nun müssen wir in die Gegenwart leben. Wir mussen Verantwortung übernehmen. Jeder muss Verantwortung für sein Leben übernehmen, egal woher sie kommen, woran sie glauben, was sie für ein Beruf, Einkommen, egal. Wir konnen uns von der Geschichte, Bücher, Filmen oder Reden inspirieren lassen, aber wir müssen unseren Leben und Schicksal leben. In diesem Sinne schliesse ich meine Rede und und danke allen, dass sie mich anhörten. Ich weiss nicht was in ihren Herzen vorgeht, würde Graham Greene sagen, und ich weiss nicht einmal was in seinem Herzen vorgeht. Daher ist es weise zu wissen was in meinem Herzen vorgeht und mich von denjenigen die zu meinem Herzen sprechen inspirieren zu lassen. Manchmal interpretiere ich die Dinge falsch oder es wird mir etwas vorgemacht, also ergibt sich eine Geschichte des Verrats, manchmal führt mich meine Leidenschaft zu meinem Verderben und ich bin froh entkommen zu sein, aber manchmal auch, finde ich meine Antworten, ein fehlendes Teil eines Puzzlespiels und dann freue ich mich diese Quelle gefunden zu haben, erfrischend, eine Quelle der Inspiration. Und dann denke ich mir, ich habe neue Freunde, neue Lieder, neue Bücher, neue Bilder, neue Fakten gefunden, ein Schatz welches ich mit Liebe hüten werde.

Einen herzlichen Dank.
Stefan Votova
(geb. 1942, in Wien, Bücherei-Angest.) Mai 1966

Stefan Votova – Vienna 1966 – for Red White Blue Monokrom
Some people who might have heard of the "Red White Blue Monokrom stories I wrote in 1998 will recognize the characters. For the others who have never heard of it, I would like to say that Red White Blue Monokrom is a fiction about a Viennese librarian called Stefan Votova, whose father owns a bookshop near Rilke Square in Vienna. Mr Votova has a passion for books but also for cinema and the Third Man in particular. In the story, or rather set of ten short stories, we see this character of Czech-Italian background, and born in 1942, telling that had a walking part role in the film made in 1948. The story is set between 1966 and 1982 where we see him wandering around Vienna and get into all sorts of kafka-esque situations. I would dearly like to get these stories published but it is a matter getting publishers believe in you. Maybe you will be able to read Red White Blue Monokrom or not, but anyway this was the Third Man page.

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