The Empty Chair Speaks

From American Thinker:

The consequences of being in over one’s head are hilariously illustrated in the noir classic The Third Man (1949, directed by Carol Reed — not, as some believe, Orson Welles.)

Pulp-western writer Holly Martins, arriving in post-WWII Vienna to take up a job his childhood buddy Harry Lime had promised him, is left to his own devices after Lime dies under mysterious circumstances.  Needing cash and a plane ticket home, Martins agrees to deliver a lecture on the modern novel to a local cultural association.

A writer who considers Zane Grey his literary hero cannot be expected to know much about James Joyce and stream-of-consciousness techniques.  Though clueless, Martins nevertheless gives it his best shot, hemming and hawing until the snobbish audience gets bored and leaves — except for a couple of thugs in trench coats.
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