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Charles Drazin

The Third Man: Yet More Theft

Last week the Society of Authors gave me some advice concerning the copyright infringement of my book In Search of the Third Man. They told me that it was important to clarify the extent of the copying in as much detail as possible. So what follows is yet another example of how John Walsh’s The Third Man: The Official Story of the Film steals from my book. And although I have now put online four examples of Walsh’s heavy plagiarism, I shall go on, page by page, to provide more examples in subsequent blog entries.


The example below, p.102 of Walsh’s book, closely follows and condenses p.57 of my book.


Here are the three paragraphs in my book that Walsh copies:

These paragraphs describe how Harry Lime’s celebrated appearance in the doorway is a mix of the Vienna location and Shepperton studios. Walsh, not concerned with style, cuts the flesh to the bare bones, but still closely follows my structure and content without due credit.


His laziness in doing so lures him into an opening non-sequitur. His first sentence states: “Making the best use of buildings in Vienna was essential for the film’s success.” Next he writes:  “For example the scene that first reveals Harry Lime and the cat in the doorway occurs in different locations.” But the fact that this scene occurs in different locations is not actually an example of “making the best use of buildings in Vienna”, especially as one of the two locations concerned is Shepperton studios.


When Walsh goes on to state that the location of the doorway is No. 8 Schreyvogelgasse, it may be coincidence that he follows me in giving the literal English translation of Schreyvogelgasse, “Shriekbird Lane”, but, as he continues his account, the accumulation of specific details that he repeats – and the order in which he repeats them – are beyond plausible coincidence:


His next detail follows my detail that No. 8 Schreyvogelgasse was a favourite location for film crews seeking to recreate old Vienna; just as, immediately after that, in mentioning the Dreimäderlhaus opposite, he gives the same specific detail of the story about Schubert’s three girlfriends, although presenting as a fact what I had described as a legend; just as, immediately after that, he repeats my comment that the close-up of Harry’s face was shot at Shepperton.


Presumably in an effort to say something new that wasn’t taken from me he adds his own comment that “Reed likely would have shot a close-up of Welles for coverage on location”, although that would hardly have been necessary when the entire doorway was re-built in Shepperton.


My next example will look at p.103 of Walsh’s book, which plagiarizes pp.59–60 of In Search of the Third Man.






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