The Threepenny Opera (1931 film)
Encyclopedia
The Threepenny Opera is a 1931 German musical film
directed by G. W. Pabst. It was produced by Seymour Nebenzal
's Nero-Film for Tonbild-Syndikat AG (Tobis), Berlin and Warner Bros. Pictures GmbH, Berlin. The film is loosely based on the 1928 musical theatre
success The Threepenny Opera
by Bertolt Brecht
and Kurt Weill
. As was usual in the early sound film
era, Pabst also directed a French language
version of the film, L'Opéra de quat'sous, with some variation of plot details (the French title literally translates as "the four penny opera"). A planned English version was not made. The two existing versions were released on a video.
The Threepenny Opera differs in significant respects from the play, and the internal timeline is somewhat vague. The whole of society is presented as corrupt in one form or another. Only some of the songs from the play are used, in a different order.
and is in league with Tiger Brown, Chief of Police, who is in charge of the coronation
of an unspecified queen.
Macheath marries Polly Peachum, daughter of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, but still visits the brothel on Turnmill Street. Peachum is displeased at his daughter's marriage, and threatens Brown with disruption of the coronation - arranging for a protest march of beggars and others. Macheath is arrested, after a rooftop escape from the brothel where he had gone to visit Jenny, his former lover during a raid
. Macheath is imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Polly, meanwhile, buys a bank, and runs it with Macheath's henchmen, making him a bank director, and she then arranges surety for Macheath to leave prison. This causes a change of heart by her parents - her father tries to stop the protest march but fails.
Jenny visits the prison, and aids Macheath's escape: he makes his way to the bank, where he discovers his new status. Brown, whose police career is ruined by the demonstration, and Peachum, also come to the bank and agree to link up.
French-language version
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by G. W. Pabst. It was produced by Seymour Nebenzal
Seymour Nebenzal
Seymour Nebenzal was a German film producer. He produced 46 films between 1927 and 1961.He got into film production through his father Heinrich Nebenzahl who in the early 1920s worked with German action star Harry Piel. In 1926 Heinrich Nebenzahl and director-producer Richard Oswald founded the...
's Nero-Film for Tonbild-Syndikat AG (Tobis), Berlin and Warner Bros. Pictures GmbH, Berlin. The film is loosely based on the 1928 musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
success The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
and Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
. As was usual in the early sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
era, Pabst also directed a French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version of the film, L'Opéra de quat'sous, with some variation of plot details (the French title literally translates as "the four penny opera"). A planned English version was not made. The two existing versions were released on a video.
The Threepenny Opera differs in significant respects from the play, and the internal timeline is somewhat vague. The whole of society is presented as corrupt in one form or another. Only some of the songs from the play are used, in a different order.
Plot
Macheath aka "Mack the Knife" ("Mackie Messer" in German) is presented as an anti-heroAnti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
and is in league with Tiger Brown, Chief of Police, who is in charge of the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of an unspecified queen.
Macheath marries Polly Peachum, daughter of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, but still visits the brothel on Turnmill Street. Peachum is displeased at his daughter's marriage, and threatens Brown with disruption of the coronation - arranging for a protest march of beggars and others. Macheath is arrested, after a rooftop escape from the brothel where he had gone to visit Jenny, his former lover during a raid
Raid (military)
Raid, also known as depredation, is a military tactic or operational warfare mission which has a specific purpose and is not normally intended to capture and hold terrain, but instead finish with the raiding force quickly retreating to a previous defended position prior to the enemy forces being...
. Macheath is imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Polly, meanwhile, buys a bank, and runs it with Macheath's henchmen, making him a bank director, and she then arranges surety for Macheath to leave prison. This causes a change of heart by her parents - her father tries to stop the protest march but fails.
Jenny visits the prison, and aids Macheath's escape: he makes his way to the bank, where he discovers his new status. Brown, whose police career is ruined by the demonstration, and Peachum, also come to the bank and agree to link up.
Cast
German-language version- Mackie Messer - Rudolf ForsterRudolf ForsterRudolf Forster was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 106 films between 1914 and 1968. His autobiography Das Spiel, mein Leben was published by Propyläen-Verlag in 1967....
- Polly - Carola NeherCarola Neher- Biography :Neher was born in Munich to a music teacher in 1900. She started to work as a bank clerk in 1917. In the summer of 1920, she gave her debut performance at the Baden-Baden theater without a specific stage education, later also working at the theaters of Darmstadt, Nuremberg and at the...
- Tiger-Brown - Reinhold Schünzel
- Peachum - Fritz RaspFritz RaspFritz Heinrich Rasp was a German film actor who appeared in 104 films between 1916 and 1976.His most notable film roles were "J. J. Peachum" in The Threepenny Opera , as Meinert in Diary of a Lost Girl , and as "Der Schmale" in Fritz Lang's Metropolis...
- Frau Peachum - Valeska GertValeska GertValeska Gert was a German Jewish dancer and cabaret artist. She was also active as an actress and artists' model.-Life and career:...
- Jenny - Lotte Lenja
- Pfarrer - Hermann ThimigHermann ThimigHermann Thimig was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 102 films between 1916 and 1967.His father Hugo Thimig was a stage actor and his sister Helene was a stage actress. Thimig began his professional career in 1910 at the Hoftheater in Meiningen till the First World War...
- Moritatensänger - Ernst BuschErnst Busch (actor)Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s...
- Smith, Gefängniswärter - Vladimir SokoloffVladimir Sokoloff-Biography:Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russia. He became an actor and assistant director with the Moscow Art Theatre, before emigrating to Berlin in 1923...
- Mackie Messers Platte – Paul Kemp, Gustav Püttjer, Oskar HöckerOskar HöckerOskar Höcker was a German author of historical novels for children and a stage actor.-Biography:Oskar Höcker was born in a suburb of Eilenburg, like his brother, author Gustav Höcker. He was educated in Chemnitz....
, Krafft Raschig - Filch – Herbert Grünbaum
- Bordellbesitzerin – Sylvia Torff
French-language version
- Polly Peachum – FlorelleFlorelleFlorelle , was a French actress. She appeared in 54 films between 1912 and 1956.She was born in Les Sables-d'Olonne, Vendée and died in La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée.-Selected filmography:...
- Mackie – Albert PréjeanAlbert PréjeanAlbert Préjean was a French actor, primarily in film. He served in World War I, and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'honneur...
- Peachum – Gaston ModotGaston ModotGaston Modot was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of French directors....
- Jenny – Margo LionMargo LionMargo Lion is a producer for plays and musicals both on Broadway and off-Broadway. She is known for her role in producing the stage and screen hit Hairspray. Combined, the works Lion produced have won 20 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize.-Biography:...
- Smith, geôlier – Vladimir SokoloffVladimir Sokoloff-Biography:Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russia. He became an actor and assistant director with the Moscow Art Theatre, before emigrating to Berlin in 1923...
- Mme. Peachum – Lucy de Matha
- Tiger-Brown – Jacques Henley
- chanteur de rues – Bill-Bocketts
- pasteur – Hermann ThimigHermann ThimigHermann Thimig was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 102 films between 1916 and 1967.His father Hugo Thimig was a stage actor and his sister Helene was a stage actress. Thimig began his professional career in 1910 at the Hoftheater in Meiningen till the First World War...
- nouveau mendiant – Antonin ArtaudAntonin ArtaudAntoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
- mendiant –
- fille à Turnbridge – Marie-Antoinette Buzet
- bande à Mac - Arthur DuarteArthur DuarteArthur Duarte was a Portuguese film director.-Selected filmography:*1938 - Os Fidalgos da Casa Mourisca*1943 - O Costa do Castelo*1944 - A Menina da Rádio*1947 - O Leão da Estrela*1954 - A Garça e a Serpente...
, Marcel MerminodMarcel MerminodMarcel Merminod was a Swiss film actor. He appeared in 21 films between 1930 and 1970. He starred in the 1970 film Black Out, which was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
, Pierre Léaud, Albert Broquin
External links
- The Threepenny Opera at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- Criterion Collection essay on The Threepenny Opera by Tony RaynsTony RaynsAntony Rayns is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. Much inspired in his youth by the films of Kenneth Anger, he wrote for the underground publication Cinema Rising before contributing to the Monthly Film Bulletin from the December 1970 issue until its demise...