This classic adaptation of the Weimar-era theatrical sensation The Threepenny Opera is set in the impoverished back alleys of Victorian London, and follows underworld antihero Mackie Messer (a.k.a. Mack the Knife) as he tries to woo Polly Peachum and elude the authorities.

Taking on a big-screen adaptation of playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill’s subversive anti-musical—itself a sensational reimagining of the John Gay’s ballad opera—G.W. Pabst delivers a triumph of early sound cinema: a scathing satire of impoverished, corrupt Victorian-era London.