Prof. Neil Sinyard remembers "The Tenth Man"

At the Graham Greene International Festival in Deans' Hall, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, England, UK) on the morning of Sunday 4th October 2009 Prof. Neil Sinyard brought down the curtain on the twelfth Festival, when he gave yet another in a series of witty and erudite talks illustrated by film. On this occasion his theme was "Forgotten Memories and the Mystery of The Tenth Man".

In 1937, Prof. Sinyard recalled, Greene had an idea for a film in which a rich man offered to give his entire wealth and possessions to anyone who would take his place at an execution. In 1944 the idea became a short novel, which he sold to MGM. Forty-one years later the same story was sold to an American publisher, who liked the tale so much that it was published in 1985. It was also filmed for television three years later in a version which starred Anthony Hopkins, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Derek Jacobi, and which earned three Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy for Derek Jacobi.

Prof. Sinyard taught in the Department of Film Studies at the University of Hull (England, UK). His many publications include Graham Greene: A Literary Life (2003), Jack Clayton (2000), Clint Eastwood (1995), Silent Movies (1995), Mel Gibson (1993), Marilyn (1992), Classic Movies (1988), Films of Steven Spielberg (1987), Filming Literature: The Art of Screen Adaptation (1986) and Journey Down Sunset Boulevard: Films of Billy Wilder (1979).

After his talk the Trustees, friends and guests gathered in Berkhamsted School's Old Hall for the Farewell Lunch, when the chairman of the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust, Giles Clark, thanked everyone for their work and support, hoped to see them next year and wished them "Bon Voyage".

David Pearce meets Dr. Fischer of Geneva

At the Graham Greene International Festival in Deans' Hall, Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, England, UK) on the morning of Sunday 4th October 2009 David Pearce gave a characteristically entertaining and enlightening talk on "Dr. Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party and coming to terms with terrorism".

In this novel, argued David Pearce, Greene writes a story which is compact, which has great economy and composure. It is a mature statement from the writer, whose daughter Caroline was present at the moment of creation, namely a dinner on Christmas Eve with grandsons there too. The plot is simple, uncluttered and static, yet ideas twist and turn. The author recycles and reinvents everything: names, characters, situations. It is a love story, but also a tale of loneliness and emptiness. The thought is offered that, if love and benevolence are taken away, there is nothing to choose between God and Satan. The final joke is that death may provide a respite, yet we are frightened of it. The last enemy, however, is not death; it is undeath, not being able to remove oneself from the nightmare. There is infinite longing in this novel: it celebrates love and hope; it is witty and perceptive, but never sentimental and it offers the possibility of happiness. David Pearce added that, if he were still an English master at Berkhamsted School, he would make this book compulsory reading.

Prof. Cedric Watts (University of Sussex, UK), author of A Preface to Greene (Longman, 1997) and a regular guest speaker at Festivals, rose from his place in Deans’ Hall to tell the audience that in the light of David’s talk he needed to rewrite his own book!

David Pearce is a Trustee and co-founder of the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust, and was Festival director for four years.

Karas' zither music flavours Austrian Dinner in Heart of Greeneland

At the Graham Greene International Festival on the evening of Saturday 3rd October 2009 the guests at the Austrian Dinner in Old Hall at Berkhamsted School (Hertfordshire, England, UK) were treated to Wiener Schnitzel, Sachertorte and a selection of Austrian wines. Dinner was followed by a selection of Anton Karas' music for the film of The Third Man (directed by Carol Reed, UK, 1949) played on the zither by Cornelia Mayer (above) and introduced by the film historian Dr. Brigitte Timmermann.

The Festival director, Dermot Gilvary, welcomed the Deputy Mayor of Dacorum, Cllr. Roger Taylor, the Mayor of Berkhamsted, Cllr. David Collins, and the Lady Mayoress, Elaine Collins (who is a trustee of the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust), the President of the Old Berkhamstedians, Natasha Charlton.

He gave thanks to Mark Steed (Principal, Berkhamsted School) for his generous hospitality, to the members of the local council and other organisations for their help and cooperation, to the Festival secretary Colin Garrett for his immense organisation, to Peter Gieler (general secretary of the Anglo-Austrian Society) for his society's generous sponsorship of Cornelia Mayer's appearances, to the Trustees for their unswerving support, to the many guest speakers whose quality so enriched the four-day event and to the public who come from near and far to support the Festival and to make it such an exciting and thriving event.

Dr. Charles Drazin on "The Oklahoma Kid"

After the Birthday Toast at the Graham Greene International Festival on the evening of Saturday 3rd October 2009 Dr. Charles Drazin spoke on "The Oklahoma Kid", or Holly Martins in the film of The Third Man (directed by Carol Reed, UK, 1949). He offered a sympathetic portrait of Holly Martins, the writer of "Westerns" and amateur investigator.

Harry Lime, Dr. Drazin argued, has stolen the show for sixty years. He enters the film two-thirds the way through and takes part in only one big dialogue, yet everyone talks about him. Like Harry, the city of Vienna is beautiful and seductive, and both take the audience’s attention away from Holly Martins. Holly is not the brightest pin in the box, and not a very efficient detective. He is painfully lacking in confidence, and anyone whose closest friend is Harry Lime is not well-off for friends. At the end of the film he is not lucky in love either. Sophisticated people do not recognise him. Some cannot remember his name, or call him by the wrong name. While Kurtz tries his hand at flattery, Sergeant Paine’s good opinion of Holly’s books is not enough to feed his low self-esteem. Holly says of himself: “I’m just a hack writer who drinks too much, and falls in love with girls.” He belongs to a gallery of losers, and does everything in the wrong way, yet he stands up for all of us in the best way. Vienna has an air of moral abdication, and the only people who take moral stands are those who are paid to do so. Others do not want to become involved. Anna Schmidt thinks that Harry is dead, and the question of whether he was murdered or not does not matter to her. However, Holly’s moral antenna is still intact, as his scenes with Crabbin (at the Hotel Sacher) and Lime (on the Great Wheel) show. So he is a very important character in the story. He thinks about right and wrong, and he makes moral choices. His faith in humanity is paradoxically justified by Anna’s rejection of him.

Dr. Drazin lectures in Film Studies at Queen Mary College in the University of London. His publications include In Search of the Third Man (1999), Korda: Britain's Only Movie Mogul (2002), The Finest Years: British Cinema of the 1940s (1998) and The Man Who Outshone the Sun King: Ambition, Triumph and Treachery in the Reign of Louis XIV (2008).