Anton Karas asked a stunned Karas if he would compose the music for the film. Karas protested, saying he had never actually written music. As Karas later told the story, the director insisted and invited Karas to England. The Austrian became homesick and asked to be allowed to return. Reed told him he could—as soon as he had written the music. Under this pressure Karas wrote his Harry Lime theme. The film—with the music a contributing factor—was a gigantic success, and Karas' life was changed drastically. As a result, he toured all over the world and performed for many celebrities, among them
Alexander Korda Vienna to make "Everybody's Woman" (1924). While there, he began work on his next film, the historical "Tragedy in the House of Habsburg" (1924), which portrayed the Mayerling Incident. It earned back around half of its production cost. He followed this with "Dancing Mad" (1925), another melodrama. Korda had frequent problems with money, and often had to receive support from friends and business associates. Korda had cast his wife Maria Corda as the female lead in all his German-language films and to a large degree, his productions depended on her star power. Korda cast her again in "A Modern Dubarry"