From its iconic theme music to the legendary chase scene through post-war Vienna’s sewers, spy classic The Third Man still draws legions of fans to the Austrian capital 70 years after its premiere – but has never found a place in locals’ hearts.

“Austria is the only country where the movie flopped” following its release in 1949, said Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, who runs a museum in Vienna dedicated to the knife-edge thriller scripted by British writer Graham Greene. “The Viennese were irritated by the not-very-flattering portrayal of their city” as a seedy hotbed of plots, murders and betrayal, he said.