Favorite Songs From Movies Top Ten: The Third Man Theme (#9)

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We have a flash flood watch out for the weekend. Lucky for me there’s a replica of Noah’s Ark nearby. And lucky for you that there’s another song on the list of my favorite songs from movies. Here’s the true oddball in the countdown…of course, you’d expect nothing less from me, would you? The Third Man Theme - Anton Karas No relation to Alex Karras. Come on, Jethro, get on the beam And pick a little dab of “The Third Man Theme” (Homer & Jethro, “Disc Jockey’s Nightmare”) The Third Man is one of my all-time favorite movies. The plot is brilliant, and both Joseph Cotton and Trevor Howard were at their absolute best in this film. And nobody remembers their performances because of Orson Welles’ entrance. If there’s anything that people who’ve never seen The Third Man know about the film, it’s the theme (which was a very popular song when the movie came out [obviously, if it got referenced in other songs]), Orson Welles’ “cuckoo clock” monologue, and that entrance. If the American Film Institute had ever done a “100 Years, 100 Entrances” the first appearance of Harry Lime on the screen would have been in the top two. Why this song was never nominated is pretty simple, to me, anyway: The Third Man, for all of its brilliance and American cast, is a British film. That was the Academy’s loss. This was — and still is — a great movie theme. The Third Man Theme Written by Anton Karas Recorded by Anton Karas From The Third Man, 1949 The widespread introduction of the zither: