Product Details

• Actors: Hildegarde Neff, Jr. Sammy Davis, Lino Ventura, June Ritchie, Gert Frobe
• Directors: Wolfgang Staudte
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Unknown
• VHS Release Date: November 1, 2002
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0001J2KJO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #350,491 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars When will this masterpiece be filmed well?, August 18, 2006

By 

W. T. Hoffman "artist and musician" (Pennsylvania, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Penny Opera,The (1963-WEST Germany/France) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I only watched this film once, but was very unimpressed. When you read the discription, it says the editing is "splicey". Well, that's not the half of it. I had the impression, that this was perhaps a german TV production, with SAMMY DAVIS JR. slapped on the dubbed international version. Sammy sings his bits over frozen frames of the film. (the editing is VERY jumpy at these points.) Now, if you have seen this on stage, you know that the street singer who sings MACK THE KNIFE, isn't a schmucky Las Vegas act, but an organ grinder of the lower classes, who provides an ersatz greek chorus for the plot. The style of Kurt Weil's orchestration isnt "Lounge Jazz", it's an avant-guarde, complex score, that builds over relativly simple melodies, and german cabaret settings. Stylistically, the music in this film JUMPS like the editing. (not to mention poor sound quality overall.)I was furious, that many of my favorite songs were NOT in this film. To cut only ONE SONG, is too many. If you're aware of the 1930s Pabst version, he chose to cut out much of the lyrical content, but left in much of the music. I suppose that was because so many songs deal with prostitution, syndicated crime, religous hypocrasy, poverty, and anti-capitalism, so that the film would have been banned. (At least with the Pabst version, it has that gritty B&W, down and dirty vibe. Pabst has the off color songs as backround music, to get around the lyrics.) Honestly, I wouldnt sit thru this 1963 version again. The dubbing was terrible, as was the overall quality of the film. I am willing to bet, that this film simply capitalized on the wildly successful Broadway version of THREE PENNY OPERA from the late 50s early 60s, along with Bobby Darrin's hit version of MACK THE KNIFE. So, some producer, instead of making a large budget version based on the Broadway production, with Lotte Lenya, just took this German version, edited in Sammy Davis Jr., did a quicky dub on it, and brought it out to the public. I cannot believe that either Brecht or Weil would have approved this farce.
Personally, I think its a travisty that the 1978 Shakespeare Company version, with Raul Julio as MACK, wasnt filmed. Right now Bandauer is producing a version in Berlin, with the lead singer from DIE TOTEN HOSEN (a very famous german punk band) as Mackie.
This great masterpiece of musical theater deserves to be PROPERLY and COMPLETELY translated to the screen, if only as a filmed stage show. It would be doing serious music, and musical theater a great service. The possiblities of a fantastic film WITH THE COMPLETE SCORE is obvious, tho barely touched upon by Pabst's version back in the 30s. Anyway, I might rent this version, but I'd never lay out the money to buy it, unless you saw it and knew what you were getting.