Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera)

London, 1890. The best friend of a police chief, the bandit Mack the Knife marries Polly without the knowledge of her father Peachum, the "king of the beggars". Furious he provokes a demonstration of beggars. Betrayed by Jenny, Mack is arrested. Polly helps him escape after she has established a prosperous bank, in the running of which the three men are reconciled. The play was written in 1928 and made Bertolt Brecht famous. He disapproved of the film adaptation so strongly that he sued the producers for altering the content of his work, but lost the case. Despite his opposition, the film is an important work and, though its satire is less astringent than Brecht's, its social polemic equating bandits, police, and bankers remains potent.