Orson Welles: Playing Himself with a Passion

Orson Welles, the main antagonist in The Third Man, drew mainly upon his own personality when it came to his performances. The textbook example of this is the film Citizen Kane, where Welles' character, Charles Foster Kane, found inspiration in the actor's own megalomania and indefatigable self-importance. Similarly, in The Third Man, Welles' character shows an anti-social contempt for others in his single-minded pursuit of his own wants. The post-war environs of Vienna have become a breeding ground for seedy, slick-talking racketeers like Harry Lime (Welles), perhaps because the war sucked up all that was good and noble in that world.

Another interesting point about Welles was that his involvement in The Third Man was a function of his self-imposed exile from the United States lasting through the 1950s. Some speculate that this was to escape the rising anti-Communist tide that would bring about blacklisting and self-censorship for leftist artists in the States (Welles being among them). Given what we talked about in class regarding the exportation of American culture to the rest of Europe, it's interesting that in some ways Europe became a haven for more radical members of the American artistic and intellectual scene. This was not a first--the "Lost Generation" of American expats after WWI had set this precedent.