The Third Man Theme

The Harry Lime Theme ( The Third Man Theme engl. ) is an instrumental composition that was written by the Viennese musician Anton Karas for the British film The Third Man (1949) and played on the zither. It is named after the title character in the movie, Harry Lime.

Formation

Anton Karas worked as a zither player when the British director Carol Reed, who sought in Vienna for locations for his film, Karas heard playing in a pub. Reed asked Karas to play in his repurposed for impromptu recording studio hotel room for recordings on the zither. During post-production, it was decided to set to music the entire movie with Karas ' music, and Karas was flown to London.

Franz Marischka stated in his autobiography Always just smile this incident somewhat differently dar. Accordingly, Reed spent together with Marischka and the film crew one evening at a wine tavern where Karas played on the zither. " Reed was the music so impressed that he asked me for a tape that he took with him to England. " There is a cutter had coincidentally found the bobbin with zither music of Karas during the sample demonstrations and inserted them to producer Alexander Korda to entertained. It was only because of his enthusiasm for this music 've Reed Karas been located in Vienna and can be brought to London, where Karas set to music the entire movie. The already committed composer Muir Mathieson was paid. - In the finished film are still two strange compositions can be heard in short fragments, Henry Loves The Old Song and Irving Berlin Managua, Nicaragua.

Dissemination

After the start of the film ( on 31 August 1949 in the UK, on January 6, 1950 in the Federal Republic of Germany and on February 2, 1950 in the U.S.) Karas ' music quickly gained popularity.

After its release as a single in 1950 held the " Harry Lime Theme " elf weeks (from April 23 to July 8 ) at number one on the U.S. bestseller ( " Best Sellers in Stores") of Billboard magazine.

A guitar version by Guy Lombardo (recorded December 9, 1949 released on the label Decca Records) also sold very well and peaked in the U.S. in the years Single Charts in 1950 to seventh place.

1950 accused the French composer Jacques and Pierre Simonot Brýle Karas for plagiarism, claiming that the " Harry Lime " motif had been inspired by her song " Si petite " ( sung by Lucienne Boyer ) served.