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. 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.
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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