We did enter the sewer, which is actually a tall passage for the River Wien. (Due to construction, the company currently takes tour participants only as far as the sewer entrance.) It's only a sewer in the sense that storm-water overflow spills into this tunnel. It doesn't smell, and there were no rats to be seen -- the filmmakers had to bring their own, said Timmerman.
The city is filled with "Third Man" lore, and it's only fitting that much of it is questionable. The version of history Timmerman professes has Welles reluctant to enter the sewer, reportedly complaining to director Carol Reed, "I can't work in a sewer, I come from California! My throat! I'm so cold!" Timmerman told us that Welles required the walls to be perfumed, did his close-up, then hastily returned to street level. A back-lit local butcher performed the chase scenes for Welles. The sewers were re-created at Shepparton Studios in England for additional filming with Welles.
On a tour of movie locales, visitors scour Vienna for traces of Orson Welles's Harry Lime (pictured above in a movie still).
(Christopher Timmermann)
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From the sewer, we traipsed to the Hotel Sacher, which was the British officers' barracks during the nearly 10 years the city was occupied after WWII. It is also the reputed birthplace of the rich chocolate and apricot confection, the Sacher Torte. And it's where Martins meets with Maj. Calloway (Howard), who eventually recruits Martins to betray Lime.
More questionable lore is found in front of the Cafe Mozart, where Martins and Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch) meet. There, a sign reads "Lemon soda for Harry Lime." However, our guide pointed out, Lime doesn't drink a lemon soda in the film. As for Welles, he did praise the Sacher's bloody Marys in its hotel register, but made no mention of lemon soda. Moreover, the cafe scenes weren't shot at the cafe at all, but 200 yards away in front of the Capuchin Church on Neuer Markt Square.
After about two hours, we wound up at the site of one of the most dramatic moments in film history -- the doorway on the Schreyvogelgasse where Lime emerges from the shadows. After explaining how the filmmakers got a cat to play with Lime's shoestrings, foreshadowing his appearance, Timmerman announced, "I have a surprise. Follow me."
She took us to a neighboring building and opened an unmarked door that turned out to be the back of the restaurant-bar Schubert Stuberl (now Restaurant Franz). As we entered a small room, a woman sitting at a wooden table with a stringed instrument and a sheet of music began to pluck out "The Third Man" theme.
For this last bit of intrigue, she really did cue the zither.
Vienna Walks & Talks (011-43-1-774-8901, www.viennawalks.com) offers "Third Man" tours Mondays and Fridays at 4 p.m. Cost for the 2 1/2-hour tour is about $19. The original British version of the film is shown at the Burg Kino (Opernring 19 A-1010).
For information on "Third Man" locations in Vienna: axion.physics.ubc.ca/thirdman/thirdman.html.
Roy Furchgott last wrote for Travel about digital cameras.
