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THE THREEPENNY OPERA III
character-playing and the subtle handling of the incidents, I would comment principally on the architectural environment which Pabst and Andrei Andreiev have jointly contrived for this comedy of manners.1 Not solely on account of their individual merit as designs do I draw attention to these sets, but because they are the envelope, as it were, of the film. Without the self-contained world that they create, a world of dark alleys, hanging rigging and twisting stairways, without their decorative yet realistic values, without the air of finality and completeness which they give, this film-operetta would not have been credible. It is partly by reason of the queer, fantastic atmosphere created in this dockside underworld that this film is lifted on to a plane by itself. This is due not only to the settings in themselves, but to the very close relationship maintained between the players and their surroundings, which has come about because the director and the architect have to all intents and purposes worked with one mind. Each corner and each doorway is conceived in direct relationship to the action played within its limits. This factor, together with the co-operation of the camerawork, builds the film into a solid, well-formed unity.
Actual instances of such dovetailed workmanship are too numerous to be detailed in full, but I praise especially the set representing Mackie Messer's headquarters, a piece of creative set design which deserves to be put on record. Presumably situated beside the
1 M. Andrei Andreiev was the architect for Wiene's Ras\olni\ov, Feyder's Therese Raquin, Pabst's Pandoras Box and Bernhardt's The Last Company, amongst other films.