The Third Man locations then and now

The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed and released in 1949, is a film that has garnered critical acclaim for its innovative cinematography and its atmospheric portrayal of post-war Vienna. I was taken by its haunting use of Vienna to return to the city just to hunt down the locations that emphasise the city's war-torn visage and political complexities, serving not just as a backdrop but as a character in its own right, contributing significantly to the film's narrative and thematic depth. 

Vienna shown at the start of the film The Third Man and today, showing the postwar development around the Hofburg Palace and St Stephen’s Cathedral.

Vienna's portrayal in the film is multifaceted, reflecting the city's historical, political, and cultural contexts in the immediate aftermath of the war. It's a terrific source I use in my class when teaching the Cold War given that Vienna was divided into four zones, each controlled by one of the Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union already establishing the general atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia which captures the essence of the Cold War era, where allegiances were uncertain, and betrayal was a constant fear. This division is clearly shown at the start, where the four powers are shown here in front of the Justizpalast on Schmerlingplatz. This division is crucial to understanding the film's setting, as it creates a labyrinthine environment of intrigue and ambiguity, mirroring the moral complexities of the characters. Vienna here serves as a striking representation of a divided city in post-war Europe, a condition that was emblematic of the Cold War's broader division of Europe. The film's depiction of Vienna, segmented into sectors controlled by the Allies and the Soviet Union, mirrors the real-world division of Berlin and, by extension, the division of Europe itself. This is akin to the division of Berlin, where each sector reflected the culture and policies of its occupying power. The portrayal of different sectors in the film further reflects the contrasting approaches of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. The Western sectors are shown as relatively more open and liberal, whereas the Soviet sector is depicted as more oppressive and rigid. For instance, when Martins crosses into the Soviet sector, there’s a noticeable change in the atmosphere, symbolising the ideological divide. This dichotomy mirrors the broader Cold War narrative where Western Europe, under the Marshall Plan, embarked on a path of democratic capitalism, while Eastern Europe, under Soviet influence, adopted a communist system. The film is steeped in an atmosphere of espionage, black market activities, and general mistrust, characteristics that were pervasive throughout the Cold War era. The shadowy and uncertain environment in post-war Vienna is reflective of the espionage battles that were a core part of the Cold War, where both sides were deeply engaged in gathering intelligence and countering each other's moves. The film also highlights the prevalence of black market activities, such as the illegal penicillin trade, underlining the economic hardships and moral ambiguities in the immediate post-war period. These activities can be seen as a consequence of the war's devastation and the resulting scarcities, which were also common in many parts of Europe during the Cold War. Tony Judt wrote how the presence of the Allied forces had a significant impact on the city's social and political environment. The film captures this through its depiction of the interactions between the local population and the occupying forces, highlighting the complexities of these relationships. The presence of the Allied forces is not just a backdrop but a critical element of the film's narrative, influencing the characters' actions and the overall atmosphere of the city.

The interactions between characters from the different occupying forces highlight the cultural and ideological clashes of the Cold War. Again, the characters representing the Western Allies and the Soviet Union often display conflicting ideologies and values. The Western characters generally embody more liberal and capitalist ideals, while the Soviet characters are depicted as adhering to strict, authoritarian principles. The film offers more nuance as Major Calloway, a British officer, represents the Allied perspective, often at odds with Holly Martins, an American. This is much as I lecture my students about the serious disagreements that took place between Churchill and Roosevelt, the latter who seemed to delight in antagonising his allies to curry favour with the satanic Stalin. His zone, as are the other three, shown on the right when it appears at 2:48 into the film with the entrance to schloss Belvedere. Chancellor Schuschnigg lived in an official apartment here until 1938 before his arrest by the Nazis after the anschluss. It was also here that the signing of the State Treaty, which made Austria free of occupying powers and other sovereignty restrictions, took place on May 15, 1955 in its Marble Hall.  

These interactions, particularly in the context of Holly's investigation into Harry Lime’s activities, reflect the differing attitudes and approaches of their respective countries. Lime himself is a symbol of moral ambiguity and the clash between capitalist opportunism and the harsh realities of post-war life. His famous speech atop the Ferris wheel, where he dismisses the value of individual human life, reflects a cynical exploitation of the situation, a theme prevalent in the Cold War's ideological battles: "Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't, so why should we? They talk about the people, and the Proletariat; I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the same thing. They have their five-year plan, and so have I." Meanwhile Anna, Lime's lover, is caught between her loyalty to Lime and the reality of his criminal activities. Her character embodies the personal and emotional conflicts wrought by the political and ideological divide. These interactions reflect the broader ideological divide between the West and the East during the Cold War allowing the film to explore how individuals from different cultural and ideological backgrounds interact with each other, often resulting in misunderstandings and conflicts, symbolising the larger cultural and political divides that characterised the Cold War era.

2:27 into the film as the narrator refers to "the old Vienna before the war” the Strauss memorial is shown. In 1903, four years after Strauss' death, a committee was formed under the auspices of Princess Rosa Croy-Sternberg to erect a monument in honour of the composer. After two years the Vienna municipal council agreed to contribute 10,000 kroner to the costs which, however, wasn't paid out until 1913. In fact, the execution was constantly delayed, on the one hand due to financing problems and on the other hand due to the outbreak of the Great War. It wasn't until June 26, 1921, that the ceremonial unveiling took place, during which the Vienna Philharmonic played. The mayor spoke of how "[t]oday is a memorable one for the city of Vienna which shows that the great sorrows visited on the people by the war are finally beginning to lessen, that Vienna is coming back to life again." One major difference between its appearance in the film and today is the colour of the statue itself; in 1935, the damaged gilding was removed and it wasn't until 1991 that the original condition of the monument was restored. Twenty years later a comprehensive renovation took place, which cost a remarkable 300,000 euros.

At 2:30 Beethoven makes an appearance from Beethovenplatz. He's buried at the Zentralfriedhof not far from where the cemetery scenes were shot; on the right I'm standing between his and Schubert's former graves at what had been Währing cemetery, northwest of Vienna, which had been closed and eventually turned into a park in the 1920s. The gravestone itself is a replica of this one.  

3.55 in showing Holly walking under a ladder as he arrives at Lime's residence, located at Josefsplatz 5. The film's use of Vienna's actual bombed-out ruins and its labyrinthine sewers adds a layer of authenticity that enhances the narrative. The ruins serve as a metaphor for the moral decay and the collapse of the old European order, whilst the sewers symbolise the hidden, murky underworld of black market dealings and espionage. This setting reflects the chaotic state of Europe at the time, where traditional moral structures were undermined by the harsh realities of post-war life. Film critic Kracauer emphasises the significance of Vienna's ruins in The Third Man, arguing that the ruins are not merely a backdrop but an active participant in the narrative. They represent the shattered moral landscape of post-war Europe, where traditional values have been eroded, leaving individuals to navigate a world of moral ambiguity. This is evident in the film's protagonist, Holly Martins, an American writer who finds himself lost in the complex and morally ambiguous world of post-war Vienna. This is evident in the film's protagonist, Holly Martins, an American writer who finds himself lost in the complex and morally ambiguous world of post-war Vienna. 

 

The first appearance of the cemetery and Lime's 'grave'

Me standing in front of the site with the Karl-Borromäus-Kirche towering in the background and Holly departing with Major Calloway following behind. At first I was confused about the site given the considerable difference in the size of the dome until I learned that it had been destroyed during the war by an incendiary bomb with the repair work lasting until the 1950s. Even then, the renovation was deplorable and it wasn't until 2000 that the church was completely renovated on the initiative of city councillor Johann Hatzl at a cost of 183 million schillings and the dome itself restored true to the original. The reopening took place on October 27, 2000 by the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Häupl, and the re-inauguration four days later by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. During the reopening, the new name Cemetery Church of Saint Charles Borromeo was chosen.

Holly arriving at Lime's 'grave' as Anna Schmidt walks away. The original gravestone toppled as it appeared in 2018 and when I returned at the end of 2023, removed and now displayed at The Third Man Museum in town. This brief cemetery sequence in which Holly Martins arrives at Harry Lime’s supposed grave and encounters Anna Schmidt walking away was filmed on November 14-15, 1948 at the Zentralfriedhof, Section 33 G. The production used the existing British Forces plot established in 1945 for Allied personnel who died during the occupation. Permission was granted by the Allied Commission and the cemetery administration for two nights of shooting between 21:00 and 02:00.The grave itself was dressed by the art department with a temporary wooden cross bearing the name “Harry Lime” and the fabricated dates 1914–1949. No actual interment existed at that location; the plot belonged to an unrelated British soldier whose marker was removed for the duration of filming and reinstated afterwards. Krasker lit the scene with two concealed 5 kW arcs positioned behind adjacent headstones, producing the low raking light that throws long shadows across the frost-covered ground. Artificial frost was added with powdered gypsum because the natural temperature on those nights hovered only just below freezing. The gravestone visible in long shot behind Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli is a real pre-war Austrian marble monument that stood immediately adjacent to the dressed plot. It belonged to a Viennese family and bore the name “Lime” purely by coincidence. The stone, already unstable after bomb damage in 1945, finally toppled in early 2018 during high winds. Cemetery authorities removed the broken pieces for safety and later transferred the intact upper section to the Third Man Museum in Vienna, where it has been exhibited since 2019 with a plaque noting its accidental appearance in the film. All dialogue and footsteps were post-synchronised at Shepperton Studios. The natural night silence of the Zentralfriedhof proved too absolute for dramatic effect, so ambient wind and distant tram bells were added in post-production. The sequence therefore combines a genuine occupation-era military cemetery, a coincidentally named existing monument, and standard studio sound replacement, whilst the temporary cross and frost dressing were struck immediately after the unit departed on the morning of November 15.

On the right Calloway confronts Holly as he invites him for a lift into town. The memorial to field marshal Heinrich Freiherr von Hess behind me serves as a point of reference. In the novella, no such reference points were available to Martins:

He drove straight out of town into the suburb (British zone) where the Central Cemetery lay. One passed through the Russian zone to reach it, and a short cut through the American zone, which you couldn't mistake because of the ice-cream parlours in every street. The trams ran along the high wall of the Central Cemetery, and for a mile on the other side of the rails stretched the monumental masons and the market gardeners—an apparently endless chain of gravestones waiting for owners and wreaths waiting for mourners.

Martins had not realised the size of this huge snowbound park where he was making his last rendezvous with Lime. It was as if Harry had left a message to him, "Meet me in Hyde Park," without specifying a spot between the Achilles statue and Lancaster Gate; the avenue of graves, each avenue numbered and lettered, stretched out like the spokes of an enormous wheel; they drove for a half mile towards the west, then turned and drove a half mile north, turned south. … The snow gave the great pompous family headstones an air of grotesque comedy; a toupee of snow slipped sideways over an angelic face, a saint wore a heavy white moustache, and a shako of snow tipped at a drunken angle over the bust of a superior civil servant called Wolfgang Gottman. Even this cemetery was zoned between the powers: the Russian zone was marked by huge statues of armed men, the French by rows of anonymous wooden crosses and a torn tired tricolour flag. Then Martins remembered that Lime was a Catholic and was unlikely to be buried in the British zone for which they had been vainly searching. So back they drove through the heart of a forest where the graves lay like wolves under the trees, winking white eyes under the gloom of the evergreens.

Baron Kurtz meeting Holly at the (non-existent) Café Mozart on the Neuer Markt. As with many of the locations shown in  the film, the square was badly damaged during the war a number of buildings disappeared and were replaced by modern buildings. Beyond the physical and economic aspects, Vienna's cultural landscape in The Third Man is also a critical element of its portrayal. The city's rich cultural heritage, juxtaposed with the prevailing atmosphere of despair and moral ambiguity, creates a stark contrast that enhances the film's narrative. Musicologist Adorno notes the significance of the film's score, composed by Anton Karas, which features the zither. This choice of instrument and the style of music provide a distinctly Viennese sound that contrasts with the dark, noir visuals of the film. The zither's light, almost whimsical tone, set against the backdrop of a ruined city, underscores the juxtaposition of Vienna's cultural richness with the grim realities of post-war life.  

Kurtz showing Holly the site of Lime's 'accident' on Josefsplatz, which is centred around a full-sized equestrian statue and monument of Emperor Joseph II at the base of which Kurtz and Harry’s friend “picked him up and laid him down just about here... and this is where he died”. This is directly in front of Lime's residence even though the film states that the address is at Stiftgasse 15.

Kurtz and Holly where Lime was supposedly fatally struck down by a truck with Kurtz stating "it was just about here". In the background is a section of the Hofburg Palace today containing the National Library. In addition to its function as a library, the building was also designed as a concert hall with superb acoustics. The library museum ended up suffering catastrophic damage in the 1848 battle for Vienna, with the zoological collection being completely destroyed by cannon fire. On the occasion of Austria's second EU presidency in 2006, the Austrian Mint minted a silver five euro coin on the reverse of which shows the building with the Emperor Joseph statue in the centre.

“Vienna doesn't really look any worse than a lot of other European cities; bombed about a bit”. Hoher Markt on the right with the Vermählungsbrunnen (Wedding fountain). Reed ended up being disappointed that much of the bombed out ruins he encountered during his initial recce of the sites had been cleared up. The film's use of language and dialogue also reflects Vienna's complex cultural identity. Linguist Crystal observes that the multilingual interactions among characters, involving English, German, and Russian, are indicative of the city's diverse cultural influences and the political tensions of the time. This linguistic diversity adds to the film's realism and authenticity, as it mirrors the actual linguistic landscape of post-war Vienna. The use of different languages in the film not only serves as a plot device but also symbolises the cultural and political fragmentation of the city.   

Martins coming to see Dr. Winkel at St. Ulrichsplatz 2. A medical practitioner within the film, Winkel symbolises the ethical dilemmas faced by individuals navigating a world in the aftermath of war. His profession as a healer becomes a metaphor for the attempt to mend the broken and wounded society left in the wake of conflict and yet Winkel benefits from a racket that sold tubes of diluted penicillin for £70 per tube. Winkel was the one who came to the scene of the accident last and was supposedly only able to determine that Harry was dead. The furnishings of his apartment suggest that he is very wealthy despite the scarcity economy and shows an interest in antiques; there are many statues and icons on display and precious pictures and crucifixes hanging on the walls, which suggest that he has a very Christian outlook despite being an atheist. One of the most prominent crucifixes shown is a Jansenist portraying Christ's arms pointing almost directly upwards, making their embrace very narrow and thus representing the heretical belief that salvation was predestined and restricted to very few as Greene would have known. 

Dr. Winkler's waiting room reminded Martins of an antique shop—an antique shop that specialized in religious objets d'art. There were more crucifixes than he could count, none of later date probably than the seventeenth century. There were statues in wood and ivory. There were a number of reliquaries: little bits of bone marked with saints' names and set in oval frames on a background of tin foil. If they were genuine, what an odd fate it was, Martins thought, for a portion of Saint Susanna's knuckle to come to rest in Doctor Winkler's waiting room. Even the high-backed hideous chairs looked as if they had once been sat in by cardinals. The room was stuffy, and one expected the smell of incense. In a small gold casket was a splinter of the True Cross. 

Dr. Winkel leaving from Boersegasse just at the corner with Tiefer Graben with the Maria am Gestade Church, which will make a couple of memorable appearances later, in the background at 42:10. At 1:14:44 both Kurtz and Winkel will be seen together from Kurtz's window in dressing gowns implying an homosexual relationship. The portrayal of Vienna's social dynamics in The Third Man further illustrates the city's complex post-war reality. Sociologist Bauman highlights the film's depiction of the stark social divisions and the sense of alienation experienced by its inhabitants. The characters in the film, both locals and foreigners, navigate a social environment marked by suspicion, disillusionment, and a struggle for survival. This social landscape is a reflection of the broader societal challenges faced by post-war Vienna, where traditional social structures had been disrupted, and new, often precarious, social orders had emerged. 

 At 42:30 Holly returns to the scene of Harry’s accident from where the porter calls to him from an upstairs window inviting Harry to return later that evening. This scene was during the main on-location shoot in 1948, when Carol Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker filmed a large share of the film’s exterior street material in the real, four-power-occupied city, then completed many controlled interiors later in Britain. The “porter at the window” beat is characteristic of how the production exploited Vienna’s existing streetscapes and multi-storey courtyards: staged as a street-level exchange with an upstairs voice, letting the scene read as firmly 'on location' even though films of this period commonly rebuilt stairwells and flats as studio sets for lighting, camera movement, and sound control. As Charles Drazin writes In Search of The Third Man, a practical issue for Vienna exteriors was sound. Post-war streets were noisy and unpredictable, and the film relied heavily on post-synchronisation. Short lines shouted from an upper window are the kind of dialogue that can be recorded later with clean audio and matched to the on-location picture, especially when the speaking character is at distance and the camera is not tightly framed on lip movement. This is consistent with the production’s broader method: Vienna gave the film its surfaces, atmosphere, and spatial credibility, whilst dialogue clarity was often achieved in post-production.
The scene also illustrates how Reed’s Vienna shooting balanced realism with strict logistical limits. Vienna in 1948 was divided into sectors controlled by the Allied powers, and filming required permissions and coordination that could affect where and when streets could be used, how long a unit could hold an area, and what could appear in frame. The film generally avoids overt occupation signage and conspicuous military presence, not because it was absent from Vienna, but because the production framed and dressed locations to keep the story’s focus and maintain continuity. Casting shaped how this sequence was executed. The porter is played by Paul Hörbiger, an Austrian actor whose presence helped anchor the film’s Viennese texture. Using a recognised local performer for a gatekeeper figure also suited the production’s approach: English-language leads move through a city of Viennese faces, voices, and doorways, with the porter functioning as an information node who can plausibly control access to Harry Lime’s world. The window call is blocked to make that control literal: the porter is physically above the street, surveilling and summoning. 

Lime's apartment is actually located at the Palais Pallavicini, owned by the noble Pallavicini family. It was previously built and owned by the Fries banking family and is therefore also known as also known as Palais Fries-Pallavicini. It was built upon a monastery erected by Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France (widow of King Charles IX of France) and closed in 1782. The palace is considered one of the main works of the architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, the builder of the Schönbrunn Gloriette. The rear part of the building facing Bräunerstrasse was also built as an apartment building. At the time, the palace had the first purely classicist house front in Vienna. Contemporaries found the façade far too simple, especially because the palace is in the immediate vicinity of the Hofburg. No façade structure was used - there wasn't even any decoration on the entrance portal which ran completely counter to the Baroque taste that was still prevalent at the time, which valued decorative centering on one point such as the entrance portal of a palace. In response to this, the entrance portal was redesigned with the sculptor Franz Anton von Zauner commissioned to add the caryatid portal I'm standing in front of here as well as several attic figures.. In 1873, the interior of the building was also redesigned in the historicist style under Margrave Alexander Pallavicini, especially the staircase with Kaiserstein steps and the banquet rooms which feature prominently in The Third Man.

 Holly and Anna arrive for their meeting with Karl the porter who witnessed Harry's 'accident' only to discover Karl has been murdered before a little boy the proclaims to the locals that Holly is the murderer.

Martins and Anna leaving the latter's apartment on Am Hof which had been part of the Roman military camp of Vindobona. In the background is the main portal of the Armoury which was built by the on the site of the former Jewish meat yard to house a municipal weapons supply for the defence of Vienna. A year before the filming of this scene, the Monument to the Firefighters Murdered by Fascism was attached to the building designed by the sculptor Mario Petrucci. It depicts a decapitated firefighter carrying his head in his right arm, and is dedicated to the resistance fighters Georg Weissel, Ludwig Ebhart, Josef Schwaiger, Rudolf Haider, Hermann Plackholm and formally dedicated to the memory of Johann Zak. More recently, as a result of a strong storm on June 21, 2007, a crane set up for renovation damaged the roof and several monuments, killing the crane operator. As Frederick Baker, who made the documentary Shadowing the Third Man relates, "in Austria they were desperate to have films done; they had a film industry left over and they were desperate to to get on with it and so for example all those wet streets... it was the local fire brigade. If your house had burnt down while The Third Man was being shot in Vienna at this time you probably would have not had the fire brigade there because they were all out helping Carol Reed hose down the street so he could get one more stop on his camera." 

At the corner of Josefsplatz and Braeunerstraße

46:30- Returning that evening to the porter only to find him murdered, Holly is accused by Little Hansel (48:25) who initiates a chase through the streets of the town centre offering a series of remarkable shots of atmospheric locations. This sequence is perhaps the definitive example of Reed’s specific visual strategy for The Third Man: the “wet street” aesthetic. Reed famously insisted that Vienna’s cobblestones be hosed down prior to shooting night exteriors, even when it hadn't rained. This allowed Krasker to capture the reflection of arc lights on the pavement, creating a high-contrast, noir nightmare that amplified the depth and texture of the image. The chase itself is a triumph of location montage rather than geographic continuity. The production stitched together disparate parts of the city, including the square at Am Hof and the steep steps near the Maria am Gestade church, to create a claustrophobic, labyrinthine trap for Holly Martins. The background ruins weren't set dressing but the actual bomb damage of 1948 Vienna; the production integrated these hazards, forcing Joseph Cotten (and his stunt doubles) to navigate genuine debris, which grounded the suspense in the physical reality of the occupied city.

Visually, this section relies heavily on the Dutch tilt angle. Whilst Reed utilised this technique throughout the film to suggest a moral universe out of balance, he increased the severity of the angles during the chase to mirror Martins’ panic and disorientation. The camera distorts the baroque architecture, making the buildings feel as if they're looming over the protagonist. The sequence also highlights the production's use of local non-actors. "Little Hansel" was played by Herbert Halbik, a local boy cast for his distinct appearance. Managing the crowd of Viennese extras required significant coordination to create the menacing, mob-like atmosphere that drives Martins away. While the visuals were captured on location, the auditory experience—the echoing footsteps, the shrill accusation of "Papa!", and the clamour of the crowd—was heavily reconstructed during post-production at Shepperton Studios. This allowed Reed to control the pacing of the chase through sound design in a way that live recording on noisy, windy Vienna street corners wouldn't have permitted.    

Little Hansel's shadow falling on the Ledererhof leading onto Am Hof. The current building was built in 1883 and redesigned in 1934 by Emil Hoppe and Otto Schönthal in the so-called New Objectivity style.  On September 10, 1944, at least three bombs hit the building. First, a bomb caused the left half of the house to collapse, burying a chimney sweep. Then the part facing Färbergasse and the roof were hit. The severe vibrations also caused window and door frames to be torn out, partition walls collapsed and false ceilings buckled. Finally, on April 5, 1945, a bomb exploded directly in front of the café at the site, with the blast wave and fragments puncturing a distant water reservoir and causing further damage to the surrounding rooms. In 1948 the Ledererhof was restored with a greatly simplified façade, a reduced attic floor and a new, unremarkable roof. Today the “Zur goldenen Kugel” restaurant uses the site.

At 48:33 Martins and Anna navigate the ruined steps past St. Ruprecht's church on Ruprechtsplatz and standing with my bike at the same spot today. The location returns at 1:34:05 for another chase with Lime the target. Before the war destroyed it, there was an house on the steep slope north of the church. This scene was filmed on November 8-9, 1948. The same flight of bombed steps reappears at 1:34:05 during the pursuit of Harry Lime shown below. Both segments were photographed during the main Vienna night unit in the International Sector of the First District.The staircase is the surviving north flank of St Ruprecht’s Church at Ruprechtsplatz 1. Bombing in March 1945 destroyed the adjacent four-storey residential building that had stood on the steep slope immediately above the church, leaving only the exposed stone steps and a jagged party wall. No reconstruction had taken place by November 1948, so the production required no dressing beyond the removal of loose rubble for safety. Krasker lit the scene with a single 10 kW arc positioned on the roof of the opposite building in Seitenstettengasse, supplemented by two smaller units hidden in the church doorway to separate the figures from the background. The November 8, 1948 take covered the dialogue between Cotten and Valli as they descend. The November 9, 1948 material recorded Orson Welles running downward past the same camera position for the later chase. Continuity was maintained by retaining the same lamp positions and by ensuring identical debris placement on the steps between the two shooting dates. Allied permission documents for November 1948 list Ruprechtsplatz as closed to traffic from 22:00 to 04:00 on both nights.All footsteps and dialogue were post-synchronised at Shepperton Studios in January 1949. The natural echo of the open ruin proved too reverberant on location, so foley artists recreated the descending footfalls on a purpose-built stone staircase at the studio whilst preserving the visual authenticity of the war-damaged site. The location therefore supplied the exact topography and texture required whilst controlled sound replacement and consistent lighting ensured editorial coherence across the two separated sequences.

Martins chased through the streets of Vienna, a couple shown below as they appear today.

At 50:30 Martins finds himself an unwilling passenger in a taxi which careens through several evocative streets such as Ulrichtplatz on the left and Schoenlanterngasse on the right, the latter making a later appearance during the hunt for Lime. The sequence was filmed during the principal Vienna night unit in October and November 1948. The taxi journey in which Holly Martins is abducted was shot as a series of process shots and genuine location passes. The interior car material with Joseph Cotten, Ernst Deutsch, and Paul Hörbiger was photographed at Shepperton Studios against rear-projection plates exposed earlier on Vienna streets. The plates themselves were taken from a moving vehicle driven along predetermined routes through the First District so that recognisable landmarks would register in the background despite the brevity of each glimpse. The route shown includes a left turn revealing Ulrichsplatz with the illuminated façade of the Kirche St Ulrich visible, followed almost immediately by a rightward glance down Schönlaterngasse. Both streets were captured in single takes from a camera car travelling at moderate speed; artificial rain was added by a water truck preceding the vehicle to heighten the nocturnal gloss demanded by Krasker. The production schedule required Allied permission for night closure of these narrow lanes, which were in the International Sector. Shooting occurred between 23:00 and 03:00 on the nights of November 3, 1948 and November 4, 1948. The fleeting image of a man carrying an uncovered double bass along Schönlaterngasse was actually unscripted. It was an unplanned element that appeared during one of the takes when a local musician, returning from a late rehearsal at the Konzerthaus, crossed the frame. Reed elected to retain the take because the incongruous sight of the large instrument in the deserted street reinforced the surreal atmosphere he sought and helped populate the frame with specific Viennese character types, distinguishing the location from a generic studio backlot. It suggests the continuity of cultural life amidst the post-war ruins.The same stretch of Schönlaterngasse reappears later in the film during the pursuit of Harry Lime, establishing geographic continuity between the abduction and the final sewer chase. Sound for the entire taxi sequence was post-synchronised in London. The exterior street noise, tyre squeal, and engine effects were added at Shepperton, whilst the dialogue inside the cab was re-recorded in a controlled studio environment to eliminate the variable ambient noise of the real Vienna locations.

 Martins at 50:43 driven to the entrance of the Salesianerinnenkirche, a monastery founded in 1719 which has been continuously inhabited by Salesian sisters of the Ordo Visitatio Mariae but repurposed in the film as the headquarters for the 'Internationales Transportkontor' where he finds himself having to address the British Council next door, now the site of an Austrian-themed restaurant. Despite the numerous changes from Graham Greene's novella, this event is for the most part intact with Colonel Calloway (as opposed to Major Calloway in the film) beginning the tale by describing it as "an ugly story if you leave out the girl: grim and sad and unrelieved, if it were not for that absurd episode of the British Council lecturer".

54:57 has Martins involved in another chase, with him fleeing up the stairs towards the Maria am Gestade church. It's these stairs, the current form of which dates back to 1937, that has locals giving the church the nickname Maria Stiegen. Although The Third Man only managed to be nominated for three Academy Awards in 1950, including Best Director, and Best Film Editing,it's no surprise that its sole Oscar was for Robert Krasker's cinematography as scene in shots such as this. Throughout, the use of 'Dutch angles' results in me having to tilt my photos to fit the perspective of the scene I'm trying to recreate and, like those used in the 1920 Robert Wiene film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari which is renowned for its distorted, angular set designs and tilted compositions, which serve to convey the psychological disarray and societal turmoil of post-World War I Germany, helps reflect the fractured and morally ambiguous postwar Vienna, depicted as a shadowy underworld filled with black marketeers, spies, refugees, thieves, and foreign powers vying for control. The tilted camera angles create a sense of unease and disorientation, reflecting the moral ambiguity and uncertainty that permeate the narrative. Given the film explores themes of betrayal, corruption, and shifting loyalties, and the Dutch angles contribute to the overall sense of uncertainty and moral ambiguity.

The introduction to Harry Lime

Standing at the doorway at Schreyvogelgasse 8 from where Lime makes his first appearance. After leaving Anna's flat, Martins walks around the streets, until he notices Anna's cat and realises someone is watching from this darkened doorway. In a momentary flash of light, it is revealed as Harry Lime. Martins calls out but Lime flees and vanishes. Martins at first notes someone lurking in the shadows, but it isn't until a light is suddenly turned on that the individual is revealed to be Harry Lime. 

On the right Martins is seen at the very moment he sees Lime for the first time as he leans against the Hannakenbrunnen with the church of Maria am Gestade again making an appearance behind. The rather brutal fountain was built as part of this staircase in the small square at the lower end by the sculptor Rudolf Schmidt and was formally unveiled on December 10, 1937. The stone base, which supports a block-like group of figures with three people, a dog, a jug and leaf tendrils, is located in an elongated octagonal fountain basin. Two of these people are busy carrying the third injured person.

There is a fish head on each side of the base which serves as a gargoyle. When designing the fountain, Schmidt used a story from a Viennese folk tale of “The Hanake,” considered the best barber in Vienna and whom, if anyone had a headache, it was said was the only one who could magic away all diseases of the head by cutting his hair. He also liked to make the inn's customers his own, especially if they suggested he had richer wallets. When the victims left the tavern after dark, many would stumble and hit the sharp stones of the steep alley. To make it easier to cause such an accident, the barber had prepared a thick wooden club, which he carefully chose to hide at the drunken man's feet with great skill. The saying “throw a beating at someone’s feet” is said to owe its origins to this fairy tale. When the injured man cried out, the barber's assistant appeared quite by chance in the doorway, looked after the poor man with compassion, helped him to his feet and led him into her master's house. There he was immediately treated leading to the reward until a colleague's competitive jealousy over his successes ultimately led to his exposure.

At 1:06:19 as Holly runs towards the door he almost gets hit by a speeding car; an impossibility given the closed location of the area as seen below. He finds Lime has fled. This scene was filmed during the main Vienna night unit in November 1948 on the corner of Marc-Aurel-Straße and Judengasse in the First District. The location is a narrow, enclosed lane bounded by high buildings and entirely within the International Sector, where civilian traffic was strictly limited after curfew and military vehicles required specific authorisation to circulate.The jeep itself was supplied by the British Element of the Allied Commission for Austria and driven by a serving soldier under controlled conditions. The production had secured permission for a single military vehicle to traverse the closed street solely for filming purposes on the night of November 12, 1948. The take was rehearsed repeatedly without the vehicle, then executed in three passes once the jeep was introduced, with Cotten timed to cross immediately ahead of it. Krasker lit the scene with a concealed arc positioned on an upper balcony in Judengasse, supplemented by the jeep’s own headlights, producing the dramatic near-miss silhouette. The apparent impossibility arises from post-production editing. The master shot showing the empty, barricaded street immediately before Lime’s escape was photographed on a different night when the area was fully sealed to all traffic. Reed deliberately withheld the jeep from that establishing footage to heighten the sense of a dead-end cul-de-sac, then cut to the action material shot later once permission for the vehicle had been granted. The continuity discrepancy is therefore intentional and masked by the rapid editing rhythm and the low-angle, high-contrast lighting that distracts from precise geographic scrutiny.Sound for the jeep’s approach and screech was added entirely in post-synchronisation at Shepperton Studios, as the real vehicle pass produced insufficient engine noise against the cold November air and the cobblestones. The sequence thus combines authentic Vienna topography with controlled studio intervention and scheduled military cooperation, typical of the logistical compromises required throughout the location schedule.

 As Harry starts to run up Mölker Steig, where the Vienna city wall ran in the Middle Ages, Martins gives chase. Scenes like this allows the film to use the unique architecture of Vienna to enhance its narrative. Eisner points out that the baroque architecture of the city, with its grand buildings and shadowy alleyways, contributes to the film's noir aesthetic. The contrast between the grandeur of the buildings and their current state of disrepair serves as a visual metaphor for the fallen state of Europe. The use of Dutch angles and shadowy lighting further emphasise the sense of disorientation and moral ambiguity. Critic Eisner points out that the characters in The Third Man are often depicted as being in a state of existential crisis, reflecting the broader psychological trauma experienced by the people of post-war Vienna. The city's fragmented landscape and the prevalence of the black market serve as external manifestations of the characters' internal turmoil. This psychological dimension adds depth to the film's portrayal of Vienna, making it a complex and multi-layered representation of a city and its people grappling with the aftermath of war. 

Lime's shadow seen at Shulhofplatz as he runs into Am Hof. In fact, the shadow on the wall is actually that of assistant director Guy Hamilton who would later direct a number of movies himself, including four Bond movies- Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and The Man with the Golden Gun. One movie would be filmed in Vienna- The Living Daylights. The original short story was set in Berlin, but given that Octopussy had already just been filmed there, director John Glen felt he needed to diversify and so he chose Vienna to both act as a setting and to stand in for Bratislava, then still behind the Iron Curtain. More recently Spectre was also filmed in Vienna by which time the Woke direction of Bond- as with movies in general- finally ended my enthusiasm for the films. Ian Fleming himself considered Vienna boring, describing it in his 1963 book Thrilling Cities as "clean, tidy, God-fearing."

Looking the other way at the same arch seen from Am Hof as Holly enters. The cherub statue was apparently a prop constructed for the scene. The pursuit sequence was filmed over three nights in November 1948, principally on November 17, 1948 and November 18, 1948. The initial glimpse of Lime’s elongated shadow on the wall of Schulhofplatz was captured on location using a powerful arc lamp positioned at the corner of Schulhof and Kurrentgasse. Krasker placed the light source low and behind Orson Welles, who ran the short distance twice whilst the camera, mounted on a high platform, recorded the silhouette against the rough plaster. No additional set dressing was required because the square retained its post-war appearance with minimal reconstruction. Lime’s dash beneath the archway into Am Hof was shot from both directions.
The wide establishing view from Am Hof looking back toward the arch (the Baroque portal connecting Schulhof to the larger square) was photographed first, with Welles sprinting through the opening whilst Trevor Howard, Joseph Cotten, and Bernard Lee followed at a prescribed distance. The reverse angle, showing Holly Martins entering Am Hof from beneath the same arch, was taken on the following night using identical lighting positions to maintain shadow continuity. The prominent cherub statue holding a lamp, visible atop the arch as the pursuers emerge into Am Hof, was a temporary prop fabricated in the Shepperton Studios workshop and transported to Vienna. The original Baroque archway carried only a simple iron lantern bracket in 1948; the existing stone putto now present is a post-1950s restoration. Reed required a stronger visual accent to frame the transition from narrow alley to open square, so the plaster cherub, moulded from an existing Viennese model and weathered to match surrounding stonework, was bolted in place for the duration of shooting and removed immediately afterwards. Allied permission documents for November 1948 explicitly list “temporary scenic statue” among items approved for installation.All footsteps, shouts, and breathing were post-synchronised in London. The cobblestones of Am Hof produced excessive rattle when run upon, so artists recreated the sound on a specially constructed stone track at Shepperton. The sequence exemplifies the production’s standard practice: authentic Viennese streets supplied spatial credibility whilst controlled props, lighting, and post-production sound refined the dramatic effect.

The kiosk covering the entrance to the sewers on Am Hof and the site today.

Judengasse. The anschluss began with the purging of Jewish influence, which had been deeply ingrained in Vienna’s cultural and intellectual spheres. Jewish academics, artists, and intellectuals, who had contributed significantly to the city’s vibrant cultural life, were systematically removed from their positions, their works banned or destroyed, and many were forced to flee or were deported. This purge extended to the physical realm as well, with the Nazis implementing architectural changes to erase the city’s pluralistic character and impose their austere, monumental style, reflective of their ideological tenets. Iconic Viennese structures and public spaces were either demolished or re-purposed to align with Nazi aesthetics, stripping the city of its historical diversity and transforming it into a symbol of Aryan supremacy.  The reconfiguration also involved a rigorous censorship regime, targeting literature, art, and music that did not conform to Nazi ideals. Libraries were purged of books deemed 'un-German', and artworks by Jewish artists were either destroyed or appropriated. The music scene in Vienna, once dominated by Jewish composers and musicians, was silenced, with their compositions banned from performance. This cultural cleansing was part of a broader strategy to rewrite Vienna’s history, eradicating the contributions of its Jewish community and other non-Aryan groups.

I noticed where I stood to take the previous photo this memorial directly below me commemorating victims of the Nazis at Judengasse 5. This is not a stolpersteine; Gunter Demnig, the artist responsible for the 'stumbling blocks' found across the continent, has condemned them as plagiarism. The memorial stones shown here differ from Demnig's stumbling blocks in a number of minor ways, incuding their size, being four times larger, honour several people on each memorial stone rather than as individuals- one at Passauerplatz casually refers to the "memory of 44 Jewish women and men"- and are made by machine rather than by hand. This stone refers to Wilhelm and Sidonie Beermann, Johanna Windholz, and Malvine Fried. The first had been forcibly deported by the Nazis from Judengasse 5 to the Lodz ghetto in Poland on October 15, 1941, with his wife and daughter Zidda Hansi Windholz. They were all killed by the Nazis at Chelmno on May 10 , 1942.

1:14:44 has Martins confronting Kurtz at his home on Morzinplatz 3 demanding to see Lime. In response Kurtz and Dr. Winkel look down from a window shown below with how the façade appears today. In the background the rubble is of the remains of Hotel Métropole which had served as the Gestapo Headquarters after having been confiscated by Reinhard Heydrich after the anschluss. He'd set up the Vienna State Police Headquarters here and decreed that the building would no longer be called the Hotel Métropole. With 900 criminal police officers and many members of the ϟϟ, the building was the largest Gestapo office in the Greater German Reich; the Gestapo had a total of around 18,000 officers. In 1938, the resistance group around Karl Burian planned to blow up the  headquarters using the hotel's construction plans provided for this purpose by the former owner Markus Friediger, but the resistance group was arrested before the plan could be realised. Friediger was deported from Cologne to Riga with his wife Hedwig in 1941 and murdered.

Over five hundred people had to come into the building every day for questioning, at the risk of being imprisoned. During the interrogations and in the cells in the basement of the Hotel Métropole, the prisoners were sometimes severely tortured by the Gestapo officers. In the summer of 1938, the last Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, was imprisoned here for months before he was transferred to Munich. Schuschnigg “lived” in a room guarded in eight-hour shifts by one guard and six sergeants at the same time, who had to keep this duty secret- there'd been 21 men guarding Schuschnigg alone. If a window was opened at the prisoner's request, he had to stay in the room so that he could not be seen from the building opposite. He also had to be accompanied by a guard to the hallway toilet; he was allowed to shave himself under supervision. In the room next to Schuschnigg, the wealthy banker Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild was held prisoner under similar prison conditions for over a year and was only released after he had given up all of his Austrian property. The isolation of the prisoners was so rigorous that it was only after the war that the inmates found out who was in the room next door. The first head of the Vienna Gestapo headquarters from March 1938 to December 1944 was the Munich Criminal Police Officer and ϟϟ brigade leader Franz Josef Huber , who was also an inspector of the security police and the SD. He was replaced by the ϟϟ-Standartenführer Rudolf Mildner. Despite their leading positions, both received only mild punishment after the war. Until 1942 and from 1944 onwards, around a third of the Vienna Gestapo's leadership staff consisted of Reich Germans, with a quarter in between. The majority of the command staff was selected from the previously “illegal Austrian National Socialists” and adaptable police officers of the Schuschnigg regime.

On March 12, 1945, the former Métropole burned down in the heavy air raid on Vienna. However, there are also witness statements according to which the fire was set by the Gestapo themselves at the beginning of April 1945 in order to destroy evidence, after relatively minor bomb damage.

After the plan to build a memorial for the victims of the Nazis was repeatedly delayed or failed, a memorial stone was erected and unveiled on Morzinplatz without permission in 1951 as part of a political rally by the concentration camp association which bore the inscription:

The Gestapo house was here. It was hell for the confessors of Austria; for many of them it was the forecourt of death. It has fallen into ruins like the 1000 year Reich. But Austria has risen again and with it our dead, the immortal victims.

 In 1985, this memorial stone was replaced by the city of Vienna with the memorial that exists today designed by Leopold Grausam. It consists of a bronze figure surrounded by eight granite blocks. The top block bears the inscription “Never Forget” and is flanked by a red chevron and a Jewish star. Another block bears the inscription of the first memorial stone.

The Ferris wheel scene

1:15:20- The start of the iconic scene at the Ferris Wheel between Martins and Lime which ends with the so-called cuckoo clock speech. In the original novella, Holly and Harry were both English but were, as is typical in Hollywood, appropriated as Americans.

The Wiener Riesenrad was designed by British engineers Harry Hitchins and Hubert Cecil Booth and constructed in 1897 by the Royal Navy engineer Lieutenant Walter Bassett Bassett, son of the MP Charles Bassett. Its purpose was to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Emperor Franz Josef I, and was one of the earliest Ferris wheels ever built. During the Great War Basset's property was expropriated and the attraction put up for auction, eventually sold three years later in 1919 to Prague merchant Eduard Steiner. In 1938, the Ferris wheel, like all of Steiner's property, was 'aryanised by the Nazis and a year later listed as an historical monument. Steiner would end up murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. During the war, the Ferris wheel was almost completely destroyed by fire and bombs and burned down in 1944.

 The trap set for Lime, interrupted by the balloon seller

The police hide in wait of Lime within the Vermählungsbrunnen in the Hoher Markt. It will be noted that Viennese policemen's uniforms are the same as those from the Third Reich police just with merely the swastikas removed given the police and armies had not yet been issued any updated uniforms until well into the 1950s. Damaged by bombs in the war in 1944, the Josefsbrunnen was restored between 1950 and 1955 with the destroyed head of the statue of the Virgin Mary restored by the young sculptor Wander Bertoni, born in Codisotto, Italy. Because his father was so annoyed by the close relationship between the Catholic Church and the Italian fascist party, he refused to give any of his children a Christian first name so med his son Wander, derived from the Etruscans. In 1943, German troops brought him to Vienna, where he had to work as a forced laborer in the armaments industry. In the meantime, the sculptor Maria Biljan-Bilger hid him. After the war Bertoni began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was commissioned to carry out restoration work on bomb-damaged monuments.
On the left, the ominous shadow of the balloon seller appears at 1:30:54, in reality nearly a couple of miles away on Michaelerplatz. The fountain Macht zur See is shown dramatically in the foreground in the film, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't replicate the shot. Set into the façade of the Michaelertrakt, the fountain was built in 1893 by the sculptor Rudolf Weyr and unveiled two years later. The main character is an allegorical representation of Austria, standing on a ship's bow. A rock sculpture rises on the fountain basin with a depiction of the sea god Neptune, a fallen giant and a sea monster. Apparently Neptune is said to be the likeness of Friedrich Uhl, editor-in-chief of the local paper Wiener Zeitung and one of whose two daughters was married to Weyr.  

Back on the Hoher Markt looking from the Vermählungsbrunnen towards Tuchlaubenstrasse at the balloon seller. Behind him is the cafe Marc Aurel created for the film. The same character had appeared in Fritz Lang's 1931 "M" and was the key agent in identifying Peter Lorre's child-killer character. Both Lorre and Welles dress similarly, and the latter too has killed children, albeit indirectly. The number and design of the balloons change, as does the length of their strings. Also odd is why he chooses to sell balloons in the middle of the night or how he manages to locate the authorities hiding during the sting when Lime himself has a commanding view of the entire area from his vantage point. Indeed, Lime is about to arrive at the cafe Marc Aurel where he will encounter both Martins and Anna before attempting his escape.

Schoenlanterngasse makes its reappearance at the same time as Lime enters the trap. Throughout this tour of Vienna using The Third Man, it becomes evident that the city is not merely a setting but a central component of the film's narrative. Vienna's physical ruins, its cultural heritage, linguistic diversity, social dynamics, and the presence of the Allied forces all contribute to the film's exploration of themes such as moral ambiguity, cultural identity, and the psychological impact of war. The film's portrayal of Vienna is a multifaceted and nuanced depiction of a city at a pivotal moment in its history, reflecting the complexities and challenges of the post-war period.    

The chase of Lime through the streets of Vienna

More security forces arrive in front of the building at Alserbachstraße 39 & 41 on the corner of Spittelauer Lände. The building is the work of architect Julius Goldschläger from 1904. Goldschläger was Jewish and died in Vienna in 1940 at the age of 68 from a cerebral embolism as a result of high blood pressure and syphilis shortly before the deportations began on November 30, 1940. He was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery in the Jewish section. His wife Irene stayed in Vienna after her husband's death and was eventually deported to the Izbica Transit camp in 1942 where she was murdered. The couple's four children managed to escape to England in 1940. One was Kurt Theodor Goldschlager who would become Kenneth Theodor Clarke. His fascinating story is related by Jerry Klinger. After fighting with a Dutch unit across Europe, the British attached him to X-Troop with the job of hunting and capturing Nazis. After the war he returned to Britain, never to marry only to end up brutally murdered in July 1977. As he was indigent with no one to claim the body and, unaware that he was Jewish, he was buried in an unmarked grave in a Catholic cemetery in Manchester. This has now been rectified, but it leads to an ironic link back to The Third Man and Harry Lime.

The final scene at the Zentralfriedhof, one of the most devastating since City Lights. Anna won’t even look at Holly, not whilst dropping dirt in Harry’s grave, not whilst passing by the Jeep he’s standing by, not even acknowledging him standing in the road. He lights a cigarette in frustration and throws the match away...she has extinguished his flame without a word. The poetic power of silence in this closing scene is simply profound and contradicts the ending of Greene's novella.

A THAW SET IN that night, and all over Vienna the snow melted, and the ugly ruins came to light again: steel rods hanging like stalactites and rusty girders thrusting like bones through the grey slush. Burials were much simpler than they had been a week before when electric drills had been needed to break the frozen ground. It was almost as warm as a spring day when Harry Lime had his second funeral. I was glad to get him under earth again: but it had taken two men's deaths. The group by the grave was smaller now: Kurtz wasn't there, nor Winkler—only the girl and Rollo Martins and myself. And there weren't any tears.

...

I watched him striding off on his overgrown legs after the girl. He caught her up and they walked side by side. I don't think he said a word to her: it was like the end of a story. He was a very bad shot and a very bad judge of character, but he had a way with Westerns (a trick of tension) and with girls (I wouldn't know what).  

By the end, Martins has shot his best friend whom he found out was a sociopath who ran an underground penicillin racket that destroyed countless men, women and children and lost Anna in the process. Throughout he comes across as the least film noirish hero- gullible, naive, clumsy, foolish. Saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, which even ends up killing people. It's not even clear why he feels the need to kill Lime given he has all but given up. Of Anna, she continues to love Lime who was happy to sell her out to the Russians to maintain his usefulness to them, fully aware of his responsibility for the deaths of children.

The Third Man Vienna locations then and now 1949 film sites Harry Lime sewer chase Prater Giant Ferris Wheel Wiener Riesenrad Zentralfriedhof cemetery grave scene Josefsplatz Imperial Palace Am Hof square Schreyvogelgasse doorway Schauspielhaus theatre Porzellangasse Reichsbrücke Danube bridge Casanova club Dorotheergasse Blue Mustard nightclub Hoher Markt ruins Salesianerkirche Belvedere Karlsplatz sewer entrance Girardipark star-shaped manhole Third Man Museum Vienna tours 2024 2025 Carol Reed directed Graham Greene screenplay Orson Welles Joseph Cotten Alida Valli Trevor Howard Anton Karas zither theme post-war Vienna four zones occupation film noir classic British cinema historical photos comparisons 1930s 1940s 1950s architecture changes WWII bomb damage reconstruction walking tours guided Third Man tour Burg Kino screenings sewer tours Vienna film locations guide map IB history resources film studies Third Man analysis propaganda black market penicillin plot