555 - The 3 Penny Opera, Germany, 1931. Dir. G. W. Pabst.
The 3 Penny Opera is an adaptation of a parody of a parody of an opera, with medieval French ballads, American dance tunes, the tango, the foxtrot, the Charleston, the Boston waltz, cabaret, Vaudeville, and an organ grinder mimicking a jazz band mimicking an orchestra playing a baroque overture.
It is also a romantic comedy crime drama social commentary political satire historical adventure story with a twist. And a twist.
It is a German adaptation of a German translation of a British adaptation of an English translation of a German pastoral using Scottish and French folk melodies to lampoon Italian opera.
It caricatures politicians, criminals, law enforcement, businessmen, bankers, monarchs, aristocrats, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, highwaymen, pirates, workers, thieves, and whores, while lampooning the ideals of communism, socialism, libertarianism, democracy, conservatism, and of course the Whig party, because, why not?
And its main character, MacHeath, with his Scottish name a send-up of the British Shakespeare's Macbeth, has for his theme song what is now an American standard.
So much for genre.
But then we do say we wish to resist labels, right?
The original, The Beggar's Opera, was written by John Gay, with music by Johann Christoph Pepusch, based on an idea by Jonathan Swift, as relayed to Alexander Pope, and premiered on Thursday, January 29, 1728, at the Lincoln Inn's Fields Theatre in London. It was immediately widely popular.
The German adaptation, The Threepenny Opera, was written by Bertoldt Brecht, with music by Kurt Weill, as translated by Elisabeth Hauptmann, including the poetry of Francois Villon, and premiered on August 31, 1928, at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. It was immediately widely popular.
Brecht and Weill were the Gilbert and Sullivan of the Weimar Republic.
They were different men with different personalities, different habits, and different political viewpoints, and they did not get along very well, but they worked well together. And that is what mattered.
Nero Film producer Seymour Nebenzal and his veteran director Georg Wilhelm (G.W.) Pabst attended that Berlin premiere and decided to adapt it into a film. So they contracted with Brecht, and (after rejecting his too-changed treatment) created an adaptation with Bela Belazs. They brought over a couple of actors from the stage play, recast the rest of the roles, removed a character, added a character, removed half the songs, gave a key song to a different character, adjusted the emphasis, and changed the ending. While on set they had the screenplay, the stage play script, the treatment, the knowledge and experience of the actors from the stage play, and permission for the actors to improvise.
Thus, The Threepenny Opera was transformed into The 3 Penny Opera.
The film is different from the play, and it is less of a musical. But it is appropriate to its own medium, and it was immediately accepted as a classic. It was released on May 17, 1931, and in 1932 it was declared to be one of the top 10 movies ever made. By 1933 it was banned by the Nazis. It is now regarded as a classic.
Mackie Messer is the king of the burglars.
Jonathan Peachum is the king of the beggars.
The burglars and the beggars. Both run a tight ship, but they do not get along.
At least Peachum does not get along with Mackie. He judges him. Peachum believes he earns his money honestly, by begging for it. He does not resort to thievery to get it. The difference being that people give to beggars of their own free will but to burglars against their will.
Mackie pays Peachum no mind. Mackie keeps his men on an exacting schedule and runs his operation out of an abandoned warehouse on the seedy side of town. Town being London--not Berlin. Remember, this is a German film adaptation of an English stage play, so while they are German actors speaking German lines and singing German lyrics, they are British characters in Victorian England. Got it? Good.
Mackie also runs a brothel in Turnbridge, where all of his ladies love him but one in particular, Jenny, is his personal girlfriend. Good for Mackie that he is close personal friends with the Chief of Police, Jackie "Tiger" Brown (Yes, Jackie Brown!), a comrade from Mackie's army days. While in service they travelled the world together, and they have especially fond memories of their time in India. Tiger Brown serves as a loyal protector of Mackie.
Peachum, "the poorest man in town," also runs a tight ship, and he uses heavy doses of emotional manipulation to do it. He treats his beggars like employees. When they get a job with him, he assigns them one of five different types of indigent characters, each intended to work on the sympathy of different types of citizens. He has five mannequins on display in his headquarters, each wearing the attire appropriate for that type of beggar. If you do not fit one of the five types, then you cannot work for him. If you do not bring in enough money--he gets a 50% cut--then he fires you and you have to go out and seek real employment. Now you have to work for a living.
Peachum's headquarters is called Peachum and Co., and he has signs on display declaring his positions. "Do not turn a deaf ear to misfortune." "Give, and thou shalt be given." "Remember the Sabbath Day." "Victim of Military Despotism." "Our rags do not conceal our wounds." "Give and thou shalt receive." "Elend." And "Aud du verrotteter Christ." Yikes.
Mackie meets Peachum's daugher Polly and falls in love with her. Pabst shows this artfully, cinematically, with the reflection of Mackie in the store window looking at the mannequin in the wedding dress, looking back at Polly looking back at it. They are to be married. Mackie has had his men burglarize the best homes to acquire the finest goods to decorate the warehouse to the highest standards to satisfy his new bride. One of his men steals the wedding dress off the mannequin. Mackie holds the wedding in the warehouse. He invites the minister. He invites the Chief of Police. Tiger Brown comes, but he must come on the downlow.
"Hello, Jackie."
"Hello, Mackie."
One imagines these two friends have been greeting one another this way for many years.
Peachum looks down on Mackie. He asserts that he runs an honest business while Mackie is a common crook. So Peachum is none too happy when he discovers that Mackie has fallen in love with his daughter, Polly Peachum, and has already married her. He vows to get revenge.
Peachum goes to Tiger Brown and threatens to destroy him if he does not arrest Mackie on the grounds of murder. He does not supply evidence of murder. Just blackmail. The new Queen is soon to be crowned, and Peachum will personally gather 1000 beggars to march on her coronation, overwhelming the city, infuriating the Queen, and ruining Tiger's career.
Brown concedes.
But he tips off Mackie ahead of time so that Mackie can flee.
Mackie goes to hide out in his brothel in Turnbridge. His ladies protect him. Well, except for Jenny. Jenny loves him and has the urge to protect him, but she is also jealous that he is newly married to another woman, so she gives in to her jealousy and gives him up, signalling to Mrs. Peachum out the window.
The character Mackie, as played in the movie by Rudolf Forster, reminds us of the character Pepe, as played by Jean Gabin in Julien Duvivier's Pepe le Moko (1938).
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/075-pepe-le-moko-1937-france-dir-julien.html
Cut to: the chase.
We get a nice bit of stealth and action as Mackie seeks to elude the police.
He is caught. He goes to jail. A man named Smith watches over him. He expects to be hanged.
But love prevails, and Jenny goes back to help him escape one way, while Polly works to set him free another way.
Peachum stages his protest anyway. He is the George Soros of 18th-century London. Gathering the masses. Organizing them. Paying them. Dressing them. Giving them signs. And bussing them to the location so that they may protest spontaneously. Nothing is new. It just cycles back around.
The film ends in a clever way, with one plot twist following another one.
It begins, ends, and is interspersed with a Street Singer, played by Ernst Busch, who sings the story and keeps us up to date.
The woman who plays Jenny is Lotte Lenya. She played the role in the original production of The Threepenny Opera, again in the film version of The 3 Penny Opera, and again in song throughout her career. She married Kurt Weill, and starred in a few Hollywood productions, including Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and From Russia with Love (1963).
We blogged about The Roman Spring here and mentioned From Russia along the way. Please follow the link and read it. It is worth your time.
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/04/477-roman-spring-of-mrs-stone-united.html
Bobby Darin owes a debt of gratitude to The 3 Penny Opera, and specifically to Harald Paulsen, the man who played MacHeath. At the last minute, three days before the play, Paulsen demanded that Brecht and Weill write one more song to introduce his character. They did. This gave the Street Singer his opening number and established him more fully in the play and in the movie.
And it gave Bobby Darin his career.
Remember that I said his theme song had become an American standard?
MacHeath's nickname was Mackie Messer, but he had yet another nickname.
On December 19, 1958, singer Bobby Darin recorded a song based on that other nickname. It was the song that Harald Paulsen had demanded be written for him just three days before the opening of the play. If Paulsen had not demanded it, there would be no Bobby Darin. It was now translated into English. Louis Armstrong recorded it for the first time in the United States two years earlier, but Satchmo was already a big star, and it was just one more hit for him. For Bobby Darin, it was a career maker and the song for which he is now known.
It would eventually be named Number 3 on Billboard's All-Time Top 100.
That song, that nickname, is "Mack the Knife."
* * * *
How does a man survive?
By daily cheating.
Kiss me, Polly.
I hope this is the last time he gets married.
It's not nice; it's art.
Hello, Jackie.
Hello, Mackie.
Perhaps next time you might choose a nicer warehouse.
The poorest man in London.
He took away my daughter. Married her, he did. Married her good and proper.
If you don't catch Mack the Knife and hang him, there will be a scandal at the Queen's coronation that will cost you your job.
A mother-in-law ought to know where her son-in-law can be arrested.
Turnbridge Alley.
Without you is like soup without a spoon.
I'll never forget you, Jenny.
But we have got real cripples.
The ugliest men are to march on the outside.
1,432 of your colleagues are marching to pay their respects to the Queen.
For I've shown that the rich of the world have no qualms causing poverty but cannot bear the sight of it.
The Queen will not allow cripples to be attacked with bayonets.
The ugliest men are to march on the outside.
1,432 of your colleagues are marching to pay their respects to the Queen.
For I've shown that the rich of the world have no qualms causing poverty but cannot bear the sight of it.
The Queen will not allow cripples to be attacked with bayonets.
More than 300 beggars are marching towards Piccadilly.
The five basic types of misery guaranteed to move the human heart.
The young man of good family who has seen better days.
How many times have I told you that a gentleman must have freshly laundered rags?
Crook's trollop!
I love him. How can I divorce him?
Love is greater than a tanned behind.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Mr. Brown has out-Browned himself. It's time we start thinking about the coronation parade.
No long speeches. Time is money.
Ladies and Gentlemen, one can rob a bank, or one can use a bank to rob others.
But Tiger Brown, our best friend, had him arrested. That must mean something.
I'd rather see him on the gallows than in the arms of another.
We sent over bail from City Bank for you, our Director.
City Bank! Piccadilly! Best part of town.
But fate moves in mysterious ways.
Do you remember when you and I were soldiers and served in the army in India?
Yes. Those were the days.
The poorest man in London, and the wealthy Mack the Knife, shouldn't they join forces?
Today showed me the power of the poor. With your money and my experience, we could do business.
If the poor are so powerful, why do they need us?
* * * *
On December 19, 1958, singer Bobby Darin recorded a song called "Mack the Knife." In August the next year that song became Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He won a Grammy for it. It would become one of the most recognizable songs in pop music history.
On January 29, 1728, at the Lincoln Inn's Fields Theatre in London, John Gay premiered his The Beggar's Opera, with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch.
This is what happened in between.
On August 31, 1928, at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, Germany, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill premiered their adaptation The Threepenny Opera.
On February 19, 1931, this film premiered in Berlin.
* * * *
[from the film]
The shark has teeth
They are there for all to see
But the knife that MacHeath carries
No one knows where it may be
On a blue and balmy Sunday
On the strand a man's lost his life
A man darts round the corner
People call him Mack the Knife
And Schmul Meier
Is still missing
One more wealthy man removed
Somehow Mackie has his money
And yet nothing can be proved
Jenny Towler was discovered
With a knife stuck in her chest
Mackie strolls along the dockside
Knows no more than all the rest
Seven children and an old man
Burned alive in old Soho
In the crowd stands Mack the Knife
Who's not asked and doesn't know
And the widow not yet twenty
She whose name
All could say
Defiled one night as she lay sleeping
Mackie, what price did you pay
Defiled one night as she lay sleeping
Mackie, what price did you pay?
- - -
Gathered for the happy ending
All and sundry pool their might
When the needed funds are handy
Things will usually turn out right
Though a man will fight his rival
To fish the muddy depths
In the end they'll dine together
And consume the poor man's bread
For some men live in darkness
While others stand in the light
We see those in the light
While the others fade from sight
* * * *
[from the pop song]
Oh, the shark, Babe,
Has such teeth, Dear,
And he shows them
Pearly white.
Just a jackknife
Has old MacHeath, Babe,
And he keeps it,
Out of sight.
You know when the shark bites
With his teeth, Babe,
Scarlet billows
Start to spread.
Fancy gloves, though,
Wears old MacHeath, Babe
So there's never,
Never a trace of red.
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