The Girl in 'The Third Man'

The article plots the main creative decisions which shaped ‘The Third Man’ taken as the 1948 film was planned then shot. It begins by explaining the situation in Vienna when the film crew arrived for location shooting, and why changed circumstances (especially constant frictions with Russian soldiers in the streets) forced the planned film to be changed. It then discusses how and why Alexander Korda commissioned the film, the experiences of Graham Greene when sent to Europe to research and write a treatment, and material he adapted from conversations with Kim Philby. It moves on to shooting the film, and the uncredited influence of the leading Viennese cameraman Hans Schneeberger. He was hired to head the third camera unit, but came to be used more broadly as an adviser, and influenced the overall style of location filmwork. It then explores the influence of British crime novels on Graham Greene’s initial treatment, especially Robert Westerby’s novel ‘Wide Boys Never Work’ which manifestly supplied the model for his character Harry Lime, a London spiv. We follow how this figure was reworked for film by the director, Carol Reed, and the actor, Orson Welles, including key decisions on how he should be shown by the camera. The piece then considers the female character, Anna Schmidt, a Czech refugee who is anxious she will be deported. It sketches in the refugee crisis at the time, explaining what women had endured in Central Europe at war’s end, and renewed fears due to Cold War tensions. It also acknowledges problems of policing these asylum seekers - practical difficulties explained in the film by the character of Major Calloway. Then it discusses the increasing pressures the American producer David Selznick placed on Reed and Greene to rewrite Anna Schmidt in keeping with female lead characters in Hollywood film noir movies; and their beligerence in not glamorising a refugee figure, insisting that this character be psychologically and socially plausible. 8pp