Mack the Knife

Out of the three film versions of this Brecht classic this is by far the best. No, its not perfect. First it uses the watered down Blitztien translation on most songs and there is too much dancing in the film.The main problem with the film is that the editor hacked it up. I have the soundtrack and no less than 6 songs were omitted after filming, including "What Keeps Mankind Alive", the theme of the play! What we are left with though is well done, Raul Julia excels as Mackie, charming, smooth and dangerous and with a great singing voice. Richard Harris is a delight as J.J. Peacham, king of the beggars and is well matched by Julie Walters as his wife. Bill Nighy makes a wonderful;ly confused Tiger Brown and the Jealousy duet performed by Rachel Robertson and Erin Donovan is the musical high point. Not great but a big improvement over the German film and the dull 1960 film with Curt Jergens.