Macky Messer - Kurt Gerron sings Mack the Knife from Threepenny Opera

[aitch3]

A feature film should be made about Kurt Gerron

[jonjamg]

@aitch3 Prisoner of Paradise

[aitch3]

@jonjamg I know but that is a documentary,

[jonjamg]

@aitch3 Probably the closest we will get.

[aitch3]

@jonjamg too bad. Could make for a great Major Motion Picture. Seems like no movies are set in Wiemar Germany except for Cabaret.

[jonjamg]

@aitch3 There is film about Comedian Harmonists filmed by Joseph Vilsmaier but it is not set completely in Weimar period. Most deal with rise of Nazi Germany and then into that era. There is a difficulty with Gerron in that he was thought by some to have sold himself out to the Nazis when he made the film about Theresienstadt for them. Weimar Germany was a world cultural centre, worth remembering but not as interesting to film makers as the Nazi era.

[Brocattoroo]

@jonjamg There is a play titled "Camp Comedy" by Roy Kift. It's a rather eerie account of the beautification of theresienstadt and Gerron's role as the director of this piece of propaganda commissioned by Hitler and Goebbels. Some of this footage still exists today on youtube in fact. It was very interesting to put up(and it appauled many as it came from a high-school in the middle of nowhere). After being cast as kurt, and rdigging a big, i found that the play was mostly historically accurate.

[Brocattoroo]

@jonjamg Additionally, Gerron was sent away for exicution following the completion of the propaganda film. He was actually on the last train that left theresienstadt. Anyway, that would be an interesting piece focused on Gerron.

[jonjamg]

@Brocattoroo True. A sad life especailly as he is seen by some as working with the Nazis when he made the film.

[Joecredit3]

@aitch3 I agree! After I saw Prisoner of Paradise, I thought, why didn't I know about Theriesenstadt? All of those personalities, the humanity of the artists, and the horror of the third reich on display simultaneously. There is no way to make a movie about it without a firm background in the Weimar.

On a side note. Perhaps the Weimar is not well covered by the film industry because you have to accept those who later became Nazis as sympathetic. It is the change that is interesting.

[meowomon]

RIP Kurt Gerron and all those who lost their lives to the nazi Holocaust. MAy this horrendous tragedy never strike this earth again.

[22worzel]

thank you for posting this. Have always been a huge fan of the Bobby Darin version but always wanted to know its origins. Now I know - and I'm happy!!

[jonjamg]

@22worzel Have you seen the Pabst film of 1931? Ernst Busch sang the song in the film. In the first performance on stage of the Opera August 31st 1928 , Gerron played the Police Chief and also sang the Streetsinger (Mack the Knife#) and Ernst Busch was a policeman. The orchestra was conducted by Theo Mackeben. Harald Paulsen played Macheath. It's available on DVD. There are parts of recordings elsewhere on youtube of Gerron and the original cast.

[jonjamg]

Gerron was there at the beginning

[ockie0706]

Good old Kurt, finally murdered by the Nazis, like so many! Wxellent performance, as far as I know directed by Bert Brecht himself, but i am not certain! Does anybody know?

[Lipry90]

A good man! bye kurt!