Diary Of A Busker Day 61 Wednesday March 16th Winchester High Street (opposite WH Smiths, Time: 1:55-5:50pm).
A cold and windy day, so it was back to normal or SNAFU, as they used to say in the war. Oh well, one must get on with it! I open the proceedings with a (despite the weather) somewhat chirpy rendition of La Vie En Rose. At the end, a friendly, suited man who had been listening nearby, comes forward to have a chat about musicians trying to be heard over loud customers in clubs, a possible small club venture he’s thinking about and small businesses. In fact his business is actually called The Federation of Small Businesses. His name is Ward. Colin Ward – the Bond-ian use has relevance. After some minutes, Colin wishes to detain me no longer. We shake hands, he departs and I begin playing The Third Man…then, out of the corner of my eye I notice that Mr. Ward has stopped, turned slightly and is listening. After a few seconds, he returns to me and says “Why are you playing that?” People usually say something like “You were playing that when I walked up the street earlier!” or “When are you NOT playing that?” so I’m slightly confused. “What, The Theme From The Third Man?” I said. He said again “Yes, but why are you playing it?” “I don’t know – I play it alot!” Mr. Ward seemed quite dumbfounded, even shocked by my playing this tune. However he had good reason to be, because, as he then explained, it turns out he has just finished writing a piece about an actor who’s first credited role was in the film The Third Man. And what’s more, the man came to be in the film as a direct result of his association with Colin Wards’ father! None of this I would have known had I not decided to play the celebrated theme there and then thus unwittingly turning a pleasant, everyday meeting into an extraordinary encounter. I mean, to meet a man who knew an actor in the film is one thing but to not know this and to start playing the Theme as the man is walking away and, AND to find out he has just written about it, well no wonder Colin was freaked out. Once again, I am amazed at the connections made through this particular piece of music. Colin said he would send me the piece he had just finished and, sure enough he did, a few hours later…
Of all the themes in all the world, you had to chose that one.
It was great to talk to you today. Thank you for your time and the music!
Read on…
“Britain in 1938 was a prime refuge for Jewish refugees from all countries of Europe. One such family arrived at Harwich with luggage labels tied to their coats. As they did not speak English (for the most part) they were identified by these labels. The family that the Ward family adopted were the Pollak family. Mother, Father, son Erich, and daughters Herta and Valli adopted England as their country of choice and set about making a career for themselves. Herta became first my nanny, then a worker in the underwear workshop in Station Road, Horley. Later Herta became the supervisor until the business was sold in 1944, this being due entirely to my father’s poor state of health. Erich told Dad that he had been an actor in Vienna, (he had actually played the part of Mr Peachum in the original staging of Bertholt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s ”The Threepenny Opera”) the family’s city of birth, and asked him if he knew anyone in the film business in London that would entertain an introduction. Dad said he knew a film director called Carol Reed who lived nearby in Horley and would ask if he would talk to him. As I was told the story, Carol Reed said to Erich:
“I have just purchased the rights of a film from the author Graham Greene and I’m going to start shooting the film when this unpleasantness (the war) is over. Also I want to shoot the film in the author’s setting………….Vienna. The title is ‘The Third Man’.”
And that is exactly what happened. The film was shot with Joseph Cotton, Orson Wells, Bernard Lee (later to play “M” in the Bond films) and Trevor Howard. Erich, (by this time he had changed his name to Erich Pohlmann) took the part of the barman in the bar where the plot took part and had one line. It was his first credited film.
The film became famous for several reasons. The zither playing of Anton Karas became iconic. No-one in England had heard a zither played solo in public before and the tune was composed by Karas and played by him in the café in which he performed in Vienna, Café Mozart. Carol Reed went to the Cafe, heard the zither and insisted that it be played in the film. Anton lived in the same flat as Carol Reed until he had composed the piece that appeared in the film. Also in the film, un-credited, was Erich’s wife Leiselotte whose voice was heard shouting at the Landlord, playing the part of his wife. The lighting technician contributed hugely to the film’s popularity, notably when Harry Lime’s shoes are suddenly exposed in a blaze of bedroom light from the nearby flat. The balloon seller being mistaken for Harry Lime is famous for its heart-stopping climax, solely because of the angle and intensity of the lighting and the frightening shadowy approach of Lime, later found to be several balloons. The balloon seller himself, when he becomes aware that something is “up”, slyly asks for a sale and becomes ominously insistent when Trevor Howard tells him to go away –all good stuff. He will only consent to go after a sum of money changes hands.
The famous locale for the chase scene is the sewer below the streets of Vienna, the entry to which is inside the street obelisk. In film trivia, even the most innocuous detail is interesting to some. Again, lighting played a key part when Harry is chased through the sewers, back lit and hugely drawn for the camera. Erich told me that, in the famous scene where Harry Lime is finally trying to lift the metal street grid from inside the sewer in order to escape, and is shot by Joseph Cotton’s character, the fingers which open at the point of the shot and then slowly disappear as Harry Lime dies and falls down the sewer stairs, are those of Carol Reed. Orson Wells had left the set before the final scenes were shot and Carol Reed had to stand in for the “fingers through the grid scene”.
The film scores points on many fronts. The script is taught. The bit-part actors are excellent. The stars are, for the most part outstanding, perhaps due to Carol Reed’s excellent direction. Lighting is outstanding and a cheaply made film became an icon. It was made in 1948 and released in 1949, four years after Casablanca.
Many years later I was introduced to Erich Pohlmann by his sister Herta, and dined with him at his flat in London. He had just returned from Germany, where he had made several films, and had a fan club. He had been employed on that visit to provide the voice-over for a men’s cologne advert. He shyly admitted that, as a result of the money he had been paid for the ad, he would not have to work again for twelve months.
His reputation as the heavy-weight villain was to become a problem later in his professional life when he was asked to appear in “From Russia with Love” directed by Cubby Broccoli. He had, by this time been cast several times as the “fat villain” in so many British films that he wanted to get away from the genre. When Cubby Broccoli wanted him to play the part of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, he declined. The fee was increased. Again he declined. The fee was again increased –again declined. Broccoli asked his own wife to persuade Erich. Eventually Erich agreed, but only on one condition. He would voice over Blofeld but only if his name did not appear on the cast list. And thus it is that in the cast list of “From Russia with Love” the actor who plays Blofeld’s part appears as “?”
It’s Erich.
Erich made 116 films throughout Europe and gained a continental fan club which was never extended to the UK. In this country he was mostly a bit part player with a loyal following. He was the ‘heavy’ in crime dramas. He was the villain in African safari movies. If girls were being sold on the slave market, it was Erich doing the bartering. In later life he was cast several times in the “Carry on” series. He also appeared as the Sheikh in the St. Trinians series.”
Copyright Colin Ward 2011.
Erich Pohlmann died in 1979. Colin still visits Herta in London. She is 93.
Earnings: £26.20p