Anton Karas - The Third Man Theme ('Before Sunrise' Scenes) [HD]

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Anton Karas performs his zither rendition of 'The Third Man Theme' (also called 'The Harry Lime Theme') which appears in the 1949 film The Third Man. Comments about this musical piece are below.

Note: The film The Third Man takes place in Vienna. The images in this video are from the 1995 Castle Rock Entertainment/Columbia Pictures Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy which also takes place in Vienna.

[CD/30-Images]

Wikipedia states:

Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The first installment in the Before trilogy, it follows Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) as they meet on a Eurail train and disembark in Vienna to spend the night together.

"The Third Man Theme" (also known as "The Harry Lime Theme") is an instrumental written and performed by Anton Karas for the soundtrack to the 1949 film The Third Man.

The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed. One night after a long day of filming The Third Man on location in Vienna, Reed and cast members Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orson Welles had dinner and retired to a wine cellar. In the bistro, which retained the atmosphere of the pre-war days, they heard the zither music of Anton Karas, a 40-year-old musician who was playing there just for the tips. Reed immediately realized that this was the music he wanted for his film. Karas spoke only German, which no one in Reed's party spoke, but fellow customers translated Reed's offer to the musician that he compose and perform the soundtrack for The Third Man. Karas was reluctant since it meant traveling to England, but he finally accepted. Karas wrote and recorded the 40 minutes of music heard in The Third Man over a six-week period, after the entire film was translated for him at Shepperton Studios.

Following its release in the US in 1950, "The Third Man Theme" spent 11 weeks at number one on Billboard's US Best Sellers in Stores chart, from April 29 to July 8. Its success led to a trend in releasing film theme music as singles. A guitar version by Guy Lombardo also sold strongly. Four other versions charted in the US during 1950. According to Faber and Faber, the different versions of the theme have collectively sold an estimated forty million copies.