Touches You

Redundant and unnecessary.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Filmed just before the Nazis came to power, and banned when they did, DIE 3-GROSCHEN OPER is a brilliant version of the Brecht classic.Set in a dystopian London full of dark shadows and concealed streets, director G. W. Pabst foregrounds the musical's satire of corruption. Macheath's (Rudolf Forster's) gang patrol the streets looking for anything to steal, rivaled only by Peachum's (Fritz Rasp's) gang of would-be beggars who become thoroughly proficient at putting on an act so as to screw more money out of the punters. In this stew of corruption concepts such as marriage mean little - although Macheath marries Polly Peachum (Carola Neher), he scarcely remains faithful to her, preferring to keep his regular Thursday date in the local whorehouse with Jenny (Lotte Lenya) in particular. Sentenced to death by hanging, Macheath eventually escapes from prison and joins Peachum in a huge cartel that dominates the center of London.Kurt Weill's music and Brecht's lyrics offer a stinging satire of contemporary life. The tunes might be memorable, but here they are sung with an emotionlessness designed to make viewers reflect on their true meaning. The narrator (Ernst Busch) addresses us direct to camera, not only prompting our responses but warning us about what will happen next. Such techniques are part of the technique known as Verfremdungseffekt, or alienation, designed to prevent us identifying with the characters and thereby forcing us to concentrate on the text's social criticism. Pabst manages this aspect of the film extremely well; by the end we fully understand the implications of living in a rapacious society where only the fittest survive.Having said that, DIE 3 GROSCHEN-OPER is also a very funny film. There is one particularly memorable set piece taking place in an isolated warehouse where Macheath and Polly are due to be married by a timorous Reverend (Hermann Thimig) who is looking for any excuse to escape at the earliest possible opportunity. The fact that he cannot do so attests to the strength of Macheath's gang.Brilliantly restored in the early 2000s, Pabst's film combines early sound techniques and a clever management of space to produce an acknowledged classic, as timely today as it was when it first appeared over eight decades ago.

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).

Sometimes, if I ever feel especially depressed at something going off in the world I like to trot this one out to make me take an even more jaundiced view of things. This surely would be no. 1 in the Top 100 Most Cynical Movies Ever, even after all these years (the simultaneous French version is not so earthy, a more flowery artiness coming out instead). For me, it's the best movie I've seen of Pabst's, most of his post-WW2 stuff has eluded me so far.The Guild Of Thieves' leader gets married to the Guild of Beggars' leader's daughter, causing friction between the two highly organised and respected professions, but inertia in the police who are in the Thieves' power. Prostitution, aberration, bigamy, thievery, extortion, bribery, corruption (and complete cynically cheerful indifference to it all), you name it it's here - after all it is all that Man can do! Laconic-looking Ernst Busch's searing inter-ditties leave you with the distinct impression that someone was rather tired with the world! The savage sounding German words spew out, whilst reading the English subtitles is sometimes heavy going in digesting all of the conceptual opinions in time to digest the next. Would that Bobby Darin had got his tonsils round a few more of the extraordinary gossamer Brecht/Weill songs from this! Lotte Lenya sparkled doing her Pirate Jenny number, being just a part of my favourite bit in the idling whorehouse.All of the people involved in 3G are "lost to sight", except to the handful of Artheads who occasionally hold cultural revivals of Weill, Brecht or Pabst. There was a memorable series of events in London in 2000 to mark the 50th anniversary of Weill's death, but 99.99% of the general public passed it by.Soon we will all be lost to sight too, along with all of our fractious opinions and silly vices.

The duality of the classic opus is magnificently captured by G. W. Pabst. As the street singer, Ernst Busch perfectly captures the cynicism of the day and Pabst's filming of his songs falling on deaf ears precisely captures the fascination of the Germans with the hypocracy and corruption of the British. If you wish to attempt to understand what made Hitler's rise to power possible, the bitterness and hopelessness captured vividly, cynically, and oh-so-lyrically by this timeless classic provides an unparalleled perspective. Lotte Lenya show-stopping "Pirate Jenny" not only captures up the bitterness and thirst for revenge, but 70 years later still stands as the most memorable song in a movie ever.