Virtual Vienna Net - Duncan Smith - Harry Lime's Doorway

With the closing of the Second World war, Austria was for ten long years carved up into four zones by the occupying Allied powers (Great Britain, United States, France and USSR). The bombed-out capital found itself deep within the Russian zone to the east and it was decided to make the old inner city (Innere Stadt) an international sector, patrolled by a representative from each of the four powers (the so-called "four men in a jeep" era). It was against the resulting backdrop of black marketing, espionage and counter-espionage that Sir Carol Reed's classic 1949 film thriller The Third Man was set.

Based on an idea by Graham Greene, and a resulting film script requested by Sir Alexander Korda, it concerns American writer Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotton) who visits 1948 Vienna to look up his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). On arrival, however, he witnesses Lime's funeral, having been apparently knocked down outside his apartment (in reality the Baroque Palais Pallavicini in Josefsplatz). Martins grows suspicious and discovers that Lime has been dealing in sub-standard penicillin resulting in several deaths, and that Lime's own demise was merely a stunt to avoid arrest.

In the 57th minute of the film Harry famously re-appears, very much alive, in the doorway at Schreyvogelgasse 8 on the Mölker Bastei (photo 1). After coming clean to Martins in his famous "cuckoo clock" speech below the Ferris wheel (Riesenrad) in the Volksprater (photo 2), Lime is cornered by police in the city's labyrinthine sewer system and shot dead (the police enter via a steel hatch still visible in Friedrich Strasse on Karlsplatz; Reed's film crew actually used a metal cylinder-topped staircase on Lothringer Strasse).

Filming took place in the covered section of the River Wien (20 metres wide and 8 metres high) that runs between the Naschmarkt and the Stadtpark, with a tense shootout at the subterranean weir below Friedrichstrasse into which the Ottakringerbach stream empties. Other notable scenes in the film include the Café Alt Wien (actually the Café Mozart at Albertinaplatz 2) and the Casanova Revue Theater at Dorotheergasse 6-8, where Martins undertakes his late-night detective work.

In addition to solid supporting roles from Trevor Howard and Alida Valli, and a memorable main theme played on the zither by Heurige musician Anton Karas, what makes The Third Man so special is author Greene's detailed depiction of post-war Vienna. He was briefed by his MI6 boss Kim Philby, stayed in the British-occupied Hotel Sacher and was shown around the city by Elizabeth Montagu, the sister of England's Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. The only detail Greene didn't get right was actor Orson Welles's fear of sewer rats!

(Note: see the original black and white film in the Burg Kino at Opernring 19 tel. 01-587-84-06, where it has been showing since 1980, and experience the sewers first hand as part of the guided walk In the Footsteps of the Third Man tel. 01-894-53-63 or visit www.wienguide.at. The last resting place of the musician Anton Karas can be found below a zither-shaped headstone in the cemetery at Sievering (Friedhof Sievering).)

Text & photographs © Duncan J D Smith 2004 from the forthcoming book Only in Vienna - A Guide to the Hidden Corners, Little-Known Places and Unusual Objects of the City on the Danube

The city has also prompted him to attempt painting, something he has wanted to try for many years, and to indulge his interest in the world of classical music. Duncan is currently researching his new book, Only in Budapest, which will be devoted to the hidden corners of the Hungarian capital. Read More about Duncan