For most of British history, Englishmen have been able to take zither music—or leave it to the Tyrolese. Last week, nonetheless, the humble, lap-sized stringed instrument was the musical rage of London. Recording sales were rivaling such alltime British favorites as Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn.
Big reason for the zither dither: the catchy, twangy background music that British Cinema Director Carol Reed (Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol) had worked into his new smash hit, The Third Man. The picture demanded music appropriate to post-World War II Vienna, but Director Reed had made up his mind to avoid schmalzy, heavily orchestrated waltzes. In Vienna one night Reed listened to a wine-garden zitherist named Anton Karas, was fascinated by the jangling melancholy of his music.
Later Reed summoned thick-spectacled, 43-year-old Anton Karas to London, kept him plucking away at his tunes for six weeks while Reed recorded a sound track. When the film was released two months ago in England, Karas' music caused as much of a furor as Reed's directing, Graham Greene's lickety-split script, or the acting of the all-star cast (Joseph Cotten, Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard).
Wrote hard-to-please Critic William Whitebait in the New Statesman and Nation: "What sort of music it is, whether jaunty or sad, fierce or provoking, it would be hard to reckon; but under its enthrallment, the camera comes into play . . . The unseen zither-player ... is made to employ his instrument much as the Homeric bard did his lyre." Said Alan Dent in the Illustrated London News: "The real hero I should call the unseen zither-player . . ."
After his work for Director Reed, Karas had returned to his Vienna café. Last week, with 300,000 records sold and nightclub bands and hurdy-gurdies playing his tunes (Harry Lime Theme, The Café Mozart Waltz), Karas flew back to London for a share of the bravos. At his opening at the Empress Club, Princess Margaret and a party of playmates including Sharman Douglas and the Marquess of Blandford arrived three hours early, got him to play Margaret's favorite (Harry Lime Theme) six times. Next night, with King George in the audience, he was introduced at the annual Royal Film performance to shrieks and applause. Said surprised Anton Karas: "I am so happy; I am so happy. Perhaps the sound of the zither is new. In Vienna, you hear zither music everywhere."