While I adore foreign films and don't at all mind reading the subtitles, I must say that you lose quite a bit when you watch a musical in another language. So, while I score it with a very respectable 7, someone watching it in their own language would probably like it a lot more and might score it higher. This isn't a criticism--more just a fact about watching most foreign language musicals--particularly one with rather old fashioned styles of songs.
If you aren't familiar with Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera", it's a musical set in the worst parts of London and is all about the low-lifes living there at the time of the Coronation (1901). The 'star' is the dangerous Mack the Knife--a cut-throat who has a reputation for the ladies and for his enemies somehow disappearing...for good. However, this toughie makes the mistake of thinking he can marry the daughter of the King of the Beggars--a very powerful foe who has decided that Mack's temerity deserves death. Will Mackie manage to survive or will the King manage to get rid of his new son-in-law? Tune in if you are interested.
Apparently the Nazis did not appreciate the play nor the playwright nor the guy who orchestrated the play/film (Kurt Weill). While the film makes the British look pretty bad (considering they all seem to either be cops on the take, pimps, thieves and the like), Brecht was a leftist and these leanings are occasionally obvious in the film (such as when the beggars approach the new queen). As for Weill, he was a Jew--and that alone was reason for the film being banned.
As for me, I appreciated the look of the film most of all. Veteran director G. W. Pabst did a nice job at the helm and the film looked very nice--with lovely sets and nice cinematography. The acting was also good, though I am not sure if the thin singing was due to the actors or just primitive sound technology. As for the songs, they are most likely an acquired taste. For me, they seemed too short and lacked the nice harmony of, say a Rogers & Hammerstein musical. This isn't to say the songs are bad--just a style that threw me a little--much of it because it was like a musical with very, very little music. All in all, entertaining and worth seeing.
By the way, the character Jennny (Lotte Lenya) was played by the same lady who three decades later played the incredibly scary agent Klebb in "From Russia With Love". Also, Vladimir Sokoloff (a familiar face in Hollywood) played the jailer just before he fled the new Nazi regime.
Also, by the way, because I am a history teacher, I was confused a bit by the coronation aspect of the film. They never talked about the King (Edward VII) but talked about the Queen being crowned. This didn't make sense to me, as Alexandra was not their sovereign--just the reigning King's wife. In other words, the person being crowned was Edward, not his Queen.
And finally, if you find the Criterion DVD, it has a great special feature--the French language version made simultaneously by Pabst--using a different cast but it's essentially the same film. This may seem strange, but at the time they didn't know how to dub films in multiple languages and even Hollywood was making alternate language versions of its films. A few examples include a Spanish version of "Dracula" (1931) with the exact same sets but Mexican actors. Also, Laurel & Hardy were such huge international stars that Hal Roach Studios made French, German, Italian and Spanish films--with Stan and Ollie phonetically delivering their lines to speakers of that language (as well as some appearances by American supporting actors like James Finlayson).
If you aren't familiar with Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera", it's a musical set in the worst parts of London and is all about the low-lifes living there at the time of the Coronation (1901). The 'star' is the dangerous Mack the Knife--a cut-throat who has a reputation for the ladies and for his enemies somehow disappearing...for good. However, this toughie makes the mistake of thinking he can marry the daughter of the King of the Beggars--a very powerful foe who has decided that Mack's temerity deserves death. Will Mackie manage to survive or will the King manage to get rid of his new son-in-law? Tune in if you are interested.
Apparently the Nazis did not appreciate the play nor the playwright nor the guy who orchestrated the play/film (Kurt Weill). While the film makes the British look pretty bad (considering they all seem to either be cops on the take, pimps, thieves and the like), Brecht was a leftist and these leanings are occasionally obvious in the film (such as when the beggars approach the new queen). As for Weill, he was a Jew--and that alone was reason for the film being banned.
As for me, I appreciated the look of the film most of all. Veteran director G. W. Pabst did a nice job at the helm and the film looked very nice--with lovely sets and nice cinematography. The acting was also good, though I am not sure if the thin singing was due to the actors or just primitive sound technology. As for the songs, they are most likely an acquired taste. For me, they seemed too short and lacked the nice harmony of, say a Rogers & Hammerstein musical. This isn't to say the songs are bad--just a style that threw me a little--much of it because it was like a musical with very, very little music. All in all, entertaining and worth seeing.
By the way, the character Jennny (Lotte Lenya) was played by the same lady who three decades later played the incredibly scary agent Klebb in "From Russia With Love". Also, Vladimir Sokoloff (a familiar face in Hollywood) played the jailer just before he fled the new Nazi regime.
Also, by the way, because I am a history teacher, I was confused a bit by the coronation aspect of the film. They never talked about the King (Edward VII) but talked about the Queen being crowned. This didn't make sense to me, as Alexandra was not their sovereign--just the reigning King's wife. In other words, the person being crowned was Edward, not his Queen.
And finally, if you find the Criterion DVD, it has a great special feature--the French language version made simultaneously by Pabst--using a different cast but it's essentially the same film. This may seem strange, but at the time they didn't know how to dub films in multiple languages and even Hollywood was making alternate language versions of its films. A few examples include a Spanish version of "Dracula" (1931) with the exact same sets but Mexican actors. Also, Laurel & Hardy were such huge international stars that Hal Roach Studios made French, German, Italian and Spanish films--with Stan and Ollie phonetically delivering their lines to speakers of that language (as well as some appearances by American supporting actors like James Finlayson).