The Threepenny Opera

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Year Released: 1931
Rating: 2.5

Super thug Mack the Knife (he loves prostitutes), whose cohorts rob London blind, marries conniving Polly Peachum; Polly's sleazy father, who employs beggars to collect cash for him, is against their union. Meanwhile, the cops are paid off or just plain stupid. So many undesirables to not choose to identify with, so little time - I'm not sure what Brecht or Pabst are going on about, frankly, but if the ending is an indicator, it's that the underground members of society shouldn't work against each other, but rather use their stolen money to invest in 'legitimate enterprises' like buying a bank and taking advantage of legitimate society (isn't that what the Mafia does?). The moral: crime pays. Ah, 'classic cinema,' is there nothing you can't teach us?