The most famous line in The Third Man is Orson Welles’s addition to the script:
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
65 years later, Paul Krugman opened his editorial in today’s New York Times with:
“Ah, Switzerland, famed for cuckoo clocks…”
With all due respect to Paul Krugman, I believe this fame came from the movie, because cuckoo clocks are not from Switzerland but from the Black Forest region of Germany.
Jan 18 2015
Does Historical Accuracy Matter?
The most famous line in The Third Man is Orson Welles’s addition to the script:
65 years later, Paul Krugman opened his editorial in today’s New York Times with:
With all due respect to Paul Krugman, I believe this fame came from the movie, because cuckoo clocks are not from Switzerland but from the Black Forest region of Germany.
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By Michel Baudin • History • 2 • Tags: Cuckoo Clock, Ford, Krugman, Lean, Toyota