The Third Man: Yet More Theft Part 3
- Charles Drazin
- Oct 28, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 12, 2025
To anyone who has followed the saga of how John Walsh has ripped off my book In Search of the Third Man, the routine will be very familiar now. It has become a boring story. The only reason why I continue to tell it is that, although I am now giving the sixth detailed example of Walsh’s theft, the publishers, Titan Books, have still to acknowledge the enormity of the copyright infringement that has taken place. So until they do, I feel I have to continue to provide yet more examples in an effort to convince them of what ought to have been long ago obvious.
This sixth example is taken from p.116 of The Third Man: The Official Story of the Film. It paraphrases and condenses pp.85–6 of my book In Search of the Third Man, as usual closely following my structure and content, and using a quotation taken from my book without due credit to my original interview as the source of the quotation.
So first, Walsh’s copyright-infringing text:
Next, my original text, which Walsh has stolen from wholesale:
There is nothing of substance that Walsh hasn’t simply lifted straight from my book, using his own words but otherwise reproducing my content, describing the things I described in exactly the same order:
a description of the sets on Shepperton’s A and B stages;
photographer Len Lee’s role taking location photographs in Vienna;
the use of a sign writer to recreate graveyard inscriptions for the cemetery set;
Ferdinand Bellan’s painting of a 30-foot backing for the cemetery background;
a quotation from producer Norman Spencer describing how fast Bellan worked;
a description of Bellan painting a street backdrop for the café scene in only three days.
In my book, I describe the street backdrop as having stretched the entire width of Stage A. When Walsh, for once, adds a detail of his own, that the width of the stage was 120 feet, he simply takes the figure from the contemporary specifications for Shepperton’s Stage A, which are easily available on the Internet. Whether the Stage A of 75 years ago had exactly the same dimensions as today’s Stage A, I don’t suppose he bothered to check.
While repeating facts is not copyright infringement, paraphrasing words so closely – copying the original selection, arrangement and compilation of someone else’s research without their permission – most certainly is. Walsh’s infringement is so blatant that I hope that Titan will soon just accept the fact, so that we can begin discussions concerning an appropriate remedy. But if they don’t, then I’m afraid I shall have to continue this dull saga with yet another instalment.
Update 12 November 2025:
All’s well that ends well. I’m pleased to say that Titan Books and I were finally able to reach a settlement. For details, see:
