The Third Man has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it as a teenager, but only now have I learned that there is a small tourist sub-market devoted to the film in Vienna, where Graham Greene and Carol Reed set their grim story. Thanks to this feature in the Guardian, I now know there are Third Man tours of city locations used in the film (including the famous doorway where Harry Lime is first spotted) and a small Third Man Museum where you can hear some of the 330 different cover versions of the famous theme music played by Anton Karas. I always thought the version played by The Band on Moondog Matinee was the cheeseball champ, but now that I know there is a Hawaiian guitar version played by Roy Smeck and his Paradise Serenaders, I'm afraid I will never know another restful night until I finally get to hear it.
The article is loaded with fun trivia. Since over half of the film was shot on location in Vienna (an unusual move for that studio-bound era), The Third Man is the best record of what the city looked like during those hard years just after World War II. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), the film tanked when it was shown in Austria. Don't judge the Austrians too harshly, though — they didn't much care for The Sound of Music, either.
Now I'll have to watch The Third Man again, preferably in the great Criterion Collection edition. I'll also have to wonder when Criterion is going to give a similar top-grade treatment to The Fallen Idol, Reed's first collaboration with Graham Greene, and a marvelous (though very different) film in its own right.
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