Österreich Post 60 Anniversary of the Film “The Third Man (Der Dritte Mann)"

ÖSTERREICH POST on 2 September 2009 issued a First Day Cover stamp marking the 60th anniversary of the 1949 award-winning film “The Third Man (Der Dritte Mann),” a tale of espionage in the dark streets and sewers of Vienna starring Orson Welles and directed by Carol Reed.  The stamp and postmark features the shadow of Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in a scene from the film.

Carol Reed filmed "The Third Man" in Vienna in 1948, during that brief, uneasy truce between the end of the WW II and the onset of the cold war. It won an Oscar and the Golden Palm at Cannes but it wasn't a hit in Vienna. The local critics were underwhelmed. The film only ran for a few weeks.

For the Viennese, this was an era of hardship and humiliation, a grinding struggle for food and fuel. People had to make huge moral compromises simply to survive. As a black market racketeer in "The Third Man' confesses, speaking for every Austrian of his generation: "I've done things that would have seemed unthinkable before the war."

When Graham Greene came Austria to research his screenplay for the film, Vienna was still under occupation, divided into British, French, American and Soviet zones.

Vienna's ambivalence about "The Third Man" betrays its ambivalence about its heritage. Was Vienna conquered or liberated by the Allies? Was the Anschluss an invasion or an alliance? Were the Austrians the first victims of the Third Reich, or its first partners in crime? "The Third Man" is Vienna's guilty secret, lurking in the shadows like Harry Lime (Orson Welles).

If you've never seen this film, you should. The cinematography, the acting, the script is superb.

Source: The Guardian