The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper) is a 1963 West German-French musical crime drama film directed by Wolfgang Staudte and starring Curd Jürgens, Hildegard Knef and Gert Fröbe.Rentschler p.146Bergfelder, Carter & Göktürk p.132 Sammy Davis Jr. appeared as a street singer of ballads. It was shot in Eastmancolor at the Spandau Studios and Tempelhof Studios in West Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Hein Heckroth. It is based on the 1928 play The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, itself inspired by the 18th-century British work The Beggar's Opera. A previous film adaptation The Threepenny Opera had been produced in 1931.
Plot In Victorian London, the notorious criminal Captain Macheath is a wanted man but is protected by his friendship with the police officer 'Tiger' Brown, with whom he served in the British Army. When he marries Polly, the daughter of Peachum the "king of London's beggars", her parents set out to try and have him hanged by the authorities. He is ultimately betrayed by the prostitute Jenny, his former lover, and faces the gallows before a last-minute reprieve.
Cast Curd Jürgens as Captain Macheath Hildegard Knef as Jenny Diver Gert Fröbe as J.J. Peachum Hilde Hildebrand as Mrs. Celia Peachum June Ritchie as Polly Peachum Lino Ventura as 'Tiger' Brown Marlene Warrlich as Lucy Walter Giller as Beggar Filch Hans W. Hamacher as Constable Smith Henning Schlüter as Reverend Kimball Hans Reiser as A Guide Siegfried Wischnewski as Matthias Walter Feuchtenberg as Jakob Stanislav Ledinek as Robert Martin Berliner as Wally the Weeper Max Strassberg as Ede Stefan Wigger as Jimmy Robert Manuel as First Hangman Jürgen Feindt as Second Hangman Adeline Wagner as Susy Erna Haffner as A Prostitute Clessia Wade as A Prostitute Jacqueline Pierreux as A Prostitute Sammy Davis Jr. as Ballad Singer
References
Bibliography Bergfelder, Tim, Carter, Erica & Göktürk, Deniz. The German Cinema Book. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. Rentschler, Eric. German Film & Literature. Routledge, 2013.
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