In London at the turn of the century, the bandit Mack the Knife marries Polly without the knowledge of her father, Peachum, the 'king of the beggars'.
Complete credited cast: | |||
Rudolf Forster | ... | Mackie Messer | |
Carola Neher | ... | Polly | |
Reinhold Schünzel | ... | Tiger-Brown | |
Fritz Rasp | ... | Peachum | |
Valeska Gert | ... | Frau Peachum | |
Lotte Lenya | ... | Jenny (as Lotte Lenja) | |
Hermann Thimig | ... | Der Pfarrer | |
Ernst Busch | ... | Der Straßensänger | |
Vladimir Sokoloff | ... | Smith (as Wladimir Sokolow) | |
Paul Kemp | ... | Mackie Messers Platte | |
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Gustav Püttjer | ... | Mackie Messers Platte |
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Oskar Höcker | ... | Mackie Messers Platte |
Krafft-Raschig | ... | Mackie Messers Platte (as Kraft Raschig) | |
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Herbert Grünbaum | ... | Filch |
In London at the turn of the century, the bandit Mack the Knife marries Polly without the knowledge of her father, Peachum, the 'king of the beggars'. Written by Brian rawnsley <rawnsleb@natlib.govt.nz>
The movie isn't a filmed version of the stage play and doesn't pretend to be. It moves along at a sometimes creaky, sometimes disjointed pace. And when does it take place? There was no coronation of anybody in Victorian England, and I don't believe they had telephones. But those are quibbles. The thrill of it is the art direction - the expressionistic sets, set decoration and costumes are wonders. All those steep staircases! Those "London" streets! Terrific.
I wonder if some of the disjointed sequences and odd pacing of the movie result from the fact that it's a reconstruction, the original having gone the way of all entartete art in Nazi Germany.