Pennies From Heaven

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Steve Martin plays Arthur, a '30s-era traveling sheet-music salesman whose marriage is bleak and who embarks on a fateful affair with a teacher (an amazing Bernadette Peters). Arthur's dreary world is juxtaposed with Busby Berkeley-styled musical production numbers that showcase Martin's and Peters's versatility. Arthur's world is desperate, sad, and only the more so when directly compared to the musical numbers. But it does work and it is affecting.

This dark, yet simultaneously ebullient film written by Dennis Potter is capable of presenting such polar-opposite visuals and emotion. Until this film, Martin was best known for his comedic albums, and for 1979's The Jerk. In other words, Pennies' disappointing box office can be accredited to audiences' inability to accept a dark Martin in the early 1980s. If Martin's dancing ability comes as a surprise, an even greater revelation is Christopher Walken in a sexy stripping tap-dancing number. Bob Hoskins played Arthur in the 1978 British miniseries of the same name. --N.F. Mendoza

Description

During the Great Depression, a married sheet-music salesman falls in love with another woman and uses cheery songs from that era to imagine a better life for himself.

Customer Reviews:

Pure delight.......2007-07-27

This movie was a flop when released.
I just loved it and think it's a masterpiece. Steve Martin and Bernardette Peters are just amazing, Christopher Walken is wonderful and the musical numbers are awesome.
The director, the late Herbert Ross, did a great job.
I just wish they'd release this movie in HD DVD. Gordon Willis' photography deserves that.

Who thought this was a good idea?.......2007-03-30

Yes, I know that Steve Martin was trying to be taken seriously as an actor. And yes, I know that he couldn't go playing The Jerk for movie after movie. Nor was he going to be The Wild & Crazy Guy. And sure, I can respect him for trying to take on a dramatic role - something which all comedians are forced to do eventually with mixed results.

But this movie is thoroughly rotten from beginning to end. Steve Martin isn't so much emoting as whining throughout the piece. He's a down on his luck traveling salesman that meets Bernadette Peters and has a bad romance with her. He leaves her. She becomes a prostitute and then he gets executed for a murder he didn't commit simply because he encountered both victim and murderer early in the film.

If that was all there was to the movie, I would have never put it on my netflix queue. However there are the musical numbers. And that's really what I was going for. Sadly, all the musical numbers are lip synched pieces. You don't get the real actors. You get seriously mismatched voices coming out of their mouths whenever they have to sing. While in some cases that's the point (the three salesman are singing in female voices after all) it's still off-putting.

What's worse is the fact that they didn't even allow Bernadette Peters or Christopher Walken to sing their own songs. Both of whom have much stronger voices than the canned music coming out of their mouths. Now granted, Bernadette Peters had yet to take over Broadway as the woman that stars in everything, but Walken was a trained song and dance man. He gets to dance. He doesn't get to sing. It's only one scene, but it could have improved the movie many times over.

Read Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre if you want a real mixture of the tragic and comic.

The enormously popular title song became a popular selection for amateur singers everywhere..........2007-01-11

In one film of the period, made away from Paramount at Columbia, Crosby changed for the better his devil-may-care attitude long enough to help a down-and-out family...

"Pennies from Heaven" cast him as a friendly vagabond, released from prison after being convicted on a false charge...

He befriends the daughter (Edith Fellows) and father (Donald Meek) of an executed murderer, setting them up in a ramshackle mansion that he turns into a profitable café...

Sentimental and curiously melancholic, the film was one of the very few Crosby movies to acknowledge the Depression...

One of the last greatest musicals.......2006-11-10

Clever, amusing and at the same time tragic. I really think that it's one of the most interesting musical movies of the last times. Music, choreography, performances and dancing, all combined with the best results.

A noble failure..........2006-06-28

It was a mistake to think that you could take a 7 hour miniseries and make an hour and 48 minute film version of it successfully. The film feels like a trailer, when the scenes just seemed all slapped together. They go by too quickly, and the film's pacing suffers as a result. It's like when a massive novel is simplified for a film. Martin and Peters do their best (though they're not as good as Hoskins and Campbell in the original), the film is well shot, and, overall, it's watchable. The filmmakers do manage to capture the tone of the miniseries here, with its sometimes jarring juxaposition between reality of the depression and the songs of the depression (which were ridiculously cheery). This was just a bad idea to do this film, and honestly, there really was no way to do it well, especially in such a short running time. But they get a few points for trying. Watch the original, which is a masterpiece....

Pennies from Heaven (1978 British Miniseries)

Average customer rating:

Pennies from Heaven worth the wait
Probably the best mini-series in the history of media
A marvel
The Rarest of TV Fare: Intelligence and Originality
Pure Heaven

Pennies from Heaven (1978 British Miniseries)
Starring: Bob Hoskins , Cheryl Campbell , Gemma Craven , Kenneth Colley , and Freddie Jones
Director: Piers Haggard
Manufacturer: BBC Warner
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001Z4P6O
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Amazon.com

Dennis Potter's astonishing six-part miniseries remains one of the edgiest, most audacious things ever conceived for television. The story tells of one Arthur Parker (Bob Hoskins), a sheet-music salesman in 1930s England. Beaten down by economic hard times and the sexual indifference of his proper wife (Gemma Craven), Arthur cannot understand why his life can't be like the beautiful songs he loves. On a sales trip through the Forest of Dean, he meets a virginal rural woman (Cheryl Campbell) he suspects may be his ideal. Ruination follows. Punctuating virtually every scene is a vintage pop song--lip-synched and sometimes danced out by the characters. This startling innovation makes the contrast between Arthur's brutish life and his bourgeois dreams even more dramatic.

Potter's dark vision digs into British stoicism, sexual repression, the class system, and even the coming of fascism in Europe. But it is especially poignant on the subject of the divide between art and reality. Piers Haggard directs the long piece with deft transitions between songs and story. (It was shot partly on multi-camera video, partly on film.) The cast is fine, especially the extraordinary Cheryl Campbell, who imbues her character with keen intelligence and no small measure of perversity. Bob Hoskins triumphs in his star-making part, bringing a demonic energy to his small-time Cockney, nearly bursting his button-down vests with frustration and appetite. Pennies from Heaven was remade in 1981 for the big screen (with Steve Martin), an interesting, Potter-scripted adaptation; it's one of the reasons the original has been unavailable on home video for so long. --Robert Horton

Description

Dennis Potter's masterpiece mini-series follows the adventures, mishaps, and yearnings of a traveling song sheet peddler on a tight commission as he tries to make dreams fit the promises of the lyrics he carries.

Customer Reviews:

Pennies from Heaven worth the wait.......2007-05-17

I've been looking for this series on DVD for YEARS! It's finally available, and it was definitely worth the wait. Dark, poignant, and funny all at the same time, this series uses poopular music from the 20s and 30s -- often inappropriately -- to express the inner heart of the characters. A young Bob Hoskins plays the lead: a sleezy traveling salesman who is hard to love, except that he does such a wonderful job of playing this character. Writer Dennis Potter is at the top of his form.

Probably the best mini-series in the history of media.......2007-02-19

Great acting, great soundtrack, great reissue. God, if only there were another mini-series in the world like this. It's better than you can imagine.

A marvel.......2007-02-03

This decidedly different 'musical' ain't gonna be to all tastes--but if you appreciate a genuinely offbeat concept superbly realised by a first-rate cast, this is for you.

The principals, Bob Hoskins (as the loutish, megalomaniac Arthur Parker), Cheryl Crawford (as the at first winsome, then increasingly hard-boiled Eileen) and Gemma Craven (the hapless and resentful Joan) couldn't be better cast. The bizaare stylisations of the lip-synched musical numbers look positively effortless as handled by them. One can hardly imagine American actors being able to handle this kind of material with their level of ease and versatility.

For me, the real test of this type of production isn't simply how well the leads carry it off--the secondary actors have to be equally good, or the whole thing comes apart. In this respect, especially, "Pennies" excels. Among the most notable of the supporting cast are two British character actors whose work I've admired for years, and who are sadly largely unknown to most audiences in this country. Hywel Bennett as Tom, a sleazy, yet oddly attractive pimp, brings the perfect aura of guttersnipe sexiness and low-bred self assurance to the part. He also, without ever once doing or saying anything overt, convinces the viewer that his character is a menacingly nasty bit of work--it's not at all hard to believe that Eileen would take it on the lam with Arthur rather than risk facing Tom once she's reneged on her deal with him. But for me, the most touching performance comes from the marvelous Freddie Jones, as the headmaster of the school where Eileen teaches. Initially introduced in a manner that suggests a typically English comic Dickensian villain, he transcends the viewer's expectations by being revealed as one of the few--possibly the only--decent characters in this story. Forced to dismiss Eileen over a compromising circumstance that has become known to the school's directors, he shows the sadness of his own disillusionment that has pushed him to treat his young charges with a certain brutality; and in a moment of beautifully underplayed pathos, almost inadvertently reveals his love for Eileen--a love he is well aware she could never(for any number of reasons) reciprocate. All he can do is offer her enough money to help her leave and re-establish herself elsewhere, and wish her good luck. As with Bennett, it's what's left unsaid and underplayed that makes his Headmaster Warner so painfully convincing.

And there are any number of other small gems of performance; Ronald Fraser as a Blimpish member of Parliament who proves himself to be a lot cannier at the blackmail game than the hapless Eileen and Arthur is among the most notable. I can't think of a single poor performance by anyone in the cast--and in a cast of this size, that's no small feat.

If you can get past the initial oddity of the concept, and if you're a fan of truly top-notch, fully realised acting --as opposed to the average histrionics that pass for acting in most American television performances--this strange (and strangely compelling) series is one you will not want to miss.

The Rarest of TV Fare: Intelligence and Originality.......2007-01-09

The late Dennis Potter's writing (as it was in The Singing Detective) is both intelligent and searing. The characters are heartbreakers and the acting, especially by Bob Hoskins and Kenneth Colley is peerless. This is what television could and should be, but almost never is. Compare this to the abominable remake with Steve Martin. Hail Britannia!

Pure Heaven.......2006-07-23

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of the British parliament, she had in her sights reform of many institutions, the coal miners were one and the British Broadcasting Corporation was another, throughout the 1980's various Director-Generals came and went and so did a lot of creative programming staff, deals that were once concluded on a handshake would eventually need a committee to close. I only mention this because some might argue that the heydays of British television resided in the 1970's, if one needed any proof of this you could do no better as an example than the BBC's production of Dennis Potter's drama "Pennies From Heaven" a six part serial or what would now be termed a mini series, it contained many innovating set pieces whereby the cast would mime to records of the 1930's period that had been especially chosen to be cued into the soundtrack to enhance the plot, I think it would be fair to say that nothing quite like it had been seen before (or since for that matter,) Starring Bob Hoskins working as a sheet music salesman between the first and second world wars who fantasizes about the songs that he sells and through his infidelity gets caught up in events that eventually overtake him. If "Pennies" were being made today no doubt it would be "cut" a little tighter but the production values and originality still hold up well. Bob Hoskins shot to fame after this and indeed he was quite brilliant as the main protagonist winning a BAFTA nomination for his role as Arthur Parker, In its year of broadcast, "Pennies" won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Most Original Programme, leading lady Cheryl Campbell who was also BAFTA nominated for her roll as Eileen Everson and Gemma Craven playing Hoskins wife were both superb as was the direction of Piers Haggard a BAFTA winner, however one of the main ingredients and stars of this serial was the choreographer Tudor Davies, who created wonders in one confined space after another.

I sold sheet music myself during the period "Pennies" was made but one can only imagine the business before television when most people had a piano in their front room and writing songs was still an art.

In it's usual brutish way Hollywood having made a flop movie of "Pennies" in 1981 supressed this BBC version for ten years, this reminded me of similar antics in the 1940's when a studio in tinsel town having remade the film Gaslight in 1944 attempted to have all prints of the previous British version of Gaslight (1940) destroyed. These efforts were eventually unsuccessful, though the film was rarely seen for several decades, don't you just admire their business ethics?

But I digress; "Pennies From Heaven" at almost eight hours long means you are going to need more than a few buckets of popcorn plus a case or two of beer, a personal unexpected bonus for me was how I grew to admire the early recordings used in "Pennies" in fact I bought the double soundtrack album on CD it's a real treat. The BBC have recorded a commentary with the director Piers Haggard and producer Kenith Trodd on episodes one and six which I found to be very interesting, from a technical point of view regarding resolution, I do wish the BBC would have used 35 millimeter film instead of their usual choice 16 mill for their external shots, also from time to time the sound levels appeared to be somewhat uneven on my DVD, having said that this should not spoil your enjoyment of what I consider to be a real gem and probably the most original programme ever to come out of British television.

Average customer rating:

A Wonderful Classic!
Finally available on DVD!

Pennies From Heaven
Starring: Bing Crosby , Madge Evans , Edith Fellows , Louis Armstrong , and Donald Meek
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00007JMEC
Release Date: 2003-01-28

Description

Legendary crooner Bing Crosby sings and dances his way through this charming and delightful story of a wanderer who drifts into the lives and hearts of the residents of the small town of Middletown, New Jersey. Featuring music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston, including the classics "So Do I," "Pennies from Heaven" (Academy Award® nominee for Best Music/Song), "Skeleton in the Closet" and "Let's Call a Heart a Heart."

With incredible supporting performances by the amazing Louis Armstrong, the beautiful Madge Evans, and the talented Edith Fellows, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN is one of the crown jewels from the golden age of Hollywood when real stars weren't found only in heaven...and a fistful of pennies still went a long way. Stars: Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Edith Fellows, Donald Meek, John Gallaudet, Tommy Dugan, Louis Armstrong, Nydia Westman.

Customer Reviews:

A Wonderful Classic!.......2006-11-10

I love old movies and was so happy to be able to add this to my collection! I highly recommend it!

Finally available on DVD!.......2003-07-27

This is a movie Crosby fans have searched for in vain for decades. Not only was it rarely aired on commercial T.V., it was never offered in VHS format. Now, thankfully, the entire movie is available on DVD and the quality is incredible. Not only is the black and white cinematography looking as good as it did in 1936, the audio makes it seems as if Bing is sitting in your living room, singing his heart out to an audience of one.

Crosby was always underrated as an actor and he is wonderful in the role of singing, swingin' troubadour. Child actress Edith Fellows is very effective and their screen chemistry is palpable. There's genuine humor throughout the movie, both intended and, one senses, unintended. Naturally Bing sings several songs, including the classic signature number, "Pennies From Heaven," which was number on of the hit parade for seven weeks. Crosby's voice is an instrument of beauty, depth and power. Close your eyes and listen to him croon: incredible!

Description

A 2-DVD pack consisting of two Dennis Potter masterpieces Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective.

Average customer rating:

Fame / Pennies From Heaven (Two-Pack)
Starring: Warner 2pak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Pennies from Heaven [Region 2]
Starring: Bob Hoskins , Cheryl Campbell , Gemma Craven , Kenneth Colley , and Freddie Jones
Director: Piers Haggard
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001P1B8E

DVD:

DVD

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