stherrien001 Reviews

The Beggar's Opera (1953)

Mack the Knife

[7/10 · 19 February 2005]

This was a very enjoyable movie especially if you like period pieces and/or musicals. Hearing Laurence Olivier sing is reason enough to watch this. The cinematography is outstanding and the movie as a whole is very colorful.

Obviously, the song "Mack the Knife" made famous by Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra is based on this opera/movie. MacHeath is in the opera/movie as is Jenny Diver and Sukey Tawdrey. Louie Miller, Lotte Lenya and Lucy Brown are mentioned in the song (and not in the opera/movie) but, after all, MacHeath was a notorious highwayman and ladies' man.

Internal Affairs (1990)

Othello retold

[20 October 2003]

Internal Affairs is Shakespeare's Othello retold in a modern setting. Has no one else detected this? Richard Gere is clearly playing Iago to Andy Garcia's Othello. Nancy Travis plays Desdemona. There is even the "hand-off" of Desdemona's hankerchief as the proof of her infidelity. In the case of Internal Affairs, the "hand-off" is with a pair of her panties. When viewed in this light, Internal Affairs is a very effective film, and could (and should) be used by teachers and students of Shakespeare as such. A very good retelling.