I half expected to see Welles run towards me
07 April 2009
Harry Mount celebrates the 60th anniversary of Carol Reed’s masterly film The Third Man with a tour of Harry Lime’s postwar Vienna — the true star of the movie
Still, Austrian life is less and less defined by the war. The brilliance of The Third Man was created by two conflicts — the second world war and the Cold one — and both have now receded into history.
How right Orson Welles was, then, in his improvised speech on the Prater Wheel.
‘In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace — and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.’
Welles later said, ‘When the picture came out, the Swiss very nicely pointed out to me that they’ve never made any cuckoo clocks.’
His original point still stands though — those dreadful times made for great art.
Harry Mount’s A Lust for Window Sills: a Lover’s Guide to British Buildings from Portcullis to Pebble-Dash is published by Little, Brown (£12.99).
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Christian Borchsenius
April 8th, 2009 3:28pm Report this comment‘In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace — and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.’
According to the biography be Nicholas Farrell, this quote is attributed to a witty dictator, Benito Mussolini.
Caius Marcius
April 9th, 2009 3:58am Report this commentThe 1990s animated series Pinky and the Brain offered a brilliant Third Man spoof - titled The Third Mouse - I found it online in a Polish translation, but you can still see how carefully the cartoonists captured the look of the original film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KQfCZ-sb28
David Short
April 10th, 2009 2:10am Report this commentLet me be the first to correct Christian Borchsenius (well, at least Orson Welles or Mussolini). It was the Germans (in Bavaria) who were responsible for the cuckoo clock.
Nothing wrong with the cuckoo clock, but just don't blame the Swiss.
Their form of democracy is the best in the world.
If I had to choose between the kind of democracy that produces perpetual war (ahem, the kind practised currently by the US and the UK) and that which allows perpetual peace, freedom and wealth and a legally-required gun in every home (Swiss), I know which I'd choose...
David Short
April 10th, 2009 2:26am Report this commentPS It's not true that the Second World War and the Cold War have receded into history. They are still being fought. It's just that the French changed sides (or did they?).
Nor is it true that Adolf is Austria's 'least favourite son'.
We British should perhaps pal up with the Russians again.
Christian Borchsenius
April 20th, 2009 3:20pm Report this commentDavid Short - my comment was only to point out that the quote wrongly attributed to Orson Welles should be atributed to Mussolini.
I too admire the Swiss form of democracy, and especially when compared to the Italian version.
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