''Pennies from Heaven'' is a 1981 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

romantic drama Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

film directed by

Herbert Ross Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing ...

, based on the 1978

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

. Dennis Potter adapted his screenplay from the BBC series for American audiences, changing its setting from London and the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

to Depression-era Chicago and rural

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The film stars

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for Steve Martin filmography, his work in comedy films, television, and #Discography, recording, he has received List of awards a ...

, Bernadette Peters,

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Christopher Walken on stage and screen, His work on stage and screen has earned him List of awards and nominations received by Christopher Walken, accolades includin ...

and Jessica Harper. Choreographed by Danny Daniels, the film includes musical numbers consisting of actors lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs of the 1920s–30s, such as " Let's Misbehave", " Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "

Let's Face the Music and Dance "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a song published in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the film ''Follow the Fleet'', where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The jazz song has a ...

" and the title song. While positively received by critics, it was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing just a fraction of its budget. Potter received a nomination for the 1981

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, mus ...

, but lost to '' On Golden Pond''.

Plot

In 1934, Chicago sheet-music salesman Arthur Parker is going through hard times. His business is failing, and his wife Joan refuses to give him the money she inherited from her father to start his own business. Arthur's dream is to live in a world that is like the songs he tries to sell. He is refused a bank loan, although he fantasizes that he gets it. In his travels, Arthur meets schoolteacher Eileen and falls in love with her instantly. They embark on a short affair, but Arthur leaves her and returns to Joan, who is desperate to keep him and agrees to give him the money he wanted. Arthur denies having an affair, though Joan is sure he is lying. Eileen gets pregnant by Arthur and is fired. With nowhere to go, she takes up with stylish pimp Tom. Eileen is attracted to Tom's "badness", and he arranges for her to have an abortion. When Arthur meets Eileen again, she is now a prostitute calling herself "Lulu". They resume their romance, and Eileen leaves Tom and her sordid life. Impulsively, Arthur convinces her to run away with him. Having failed to sell his business, Arthur and Eileen break into the store one night and trash it, smashing its phonograph records (except for "Pennies from Heaven"). To supplement their income, Eileen keeps prostituting in spite of Arthur's objections. A blind girl whom Arthur knew superficially is raped and murdered by an accordion-playing hobo to whom Arthur had given a ride earlier in the film. The police suspect Arthur, and Joan tells them that he has sordid sexual proclivities to get back at him for cheating on her. The police find Arthur trying to leave town with Eileen, and arrest him for murder; he is soon convicted and sentenced to death. At the gallows, he recites the lyrics from the song " Pennies from Heaven". In one final fantasy, Arthur and Eileen are reunited, with Arthur saying, "We couldn't have gone through all that without a happy ending. Songs ain't like that, are they?"

Cast

as Arthur Parker * Bernadette Peters as Eileen ("Lulu") * Jessica Harper as Joan Parker * Vernel Bagneris as Accordion man * John McMartin as Mr. Warner *

John Karlen John Karlen (born John Adam Karlewicz; May 28, 1933 – January 22, 2020) was an American character actor who played multiple roles on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC serial ''Dark Shadows'' on and off from 1967 to 1971. In 1971, Karlen s ...

as Detective * Jay Garner as Banker * Robert Fitch as Al * Tommy Rall as Ed * Eliska Krupka as blind girl *

as Tom * Raleigh Bond as Mr. Barrett * George P. Wilbur as Motorcycle Police * Nancy Parsons as The Old Whore * Duke Stroud as Counterman * Francis X. McCarthy as The Bartender * Will Hare as Father Everson

Production

''Pennies from Heaven'' was Martin's first dramatic role in a film. He had watched the original miniseries and considered it "the greatest thing e'dever seen." He trained for eight months learning to

tap dance Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

, while Christopher Walken, who had trained as a dancer as a young man, was able to use his dancing skills in the film. According to a 1990 article in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'',

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

had Potter rewrite the script 13 times and required him to buy back his copyright from the

, for which he paid the BBC "something over $100,000". In addition, MGM prohibited broadcast of the BBC's original production for 10 years. Around 1989, at the prompting of

Alan Yentob Alan Yentob (11 March 1947 – 24 May 2025) was an English television executive and presenter. He held senior roles at the BBC, including head of music and arts, controller of BBC1 and BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadca ...

, the controller of

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

, producer Kenith Trodd was able to buy back the rights from MGM for "a very inconsiderable sum." In February 1990, the BBC rebroadcast the original ''Pennies from Heaven'' serial for the first time since 1978. In the same ''Times'' article, Trodd stated that Bob Hoskins and Cheryl Campbell, the stars of the original series, "were terribly upset that they weren't considered for the film. I think they still blame Dennis and me in some way, but there was no way to argue the point with MGM." The style of the movie balances the drab despair of the Depression era and the characters' sad lives with brightly colored dream-fantasy lavish musical sequences. The characters break into song and dance to express their emotions. For example, Eileen turns into a silver-gowned torch singer in her school-room, with her students lip-synching and dancing ("Love Is Good for Anything That Ails You"). Tom seduces Eileen with a tap dance/striptease routine on top of a bar ("Let's Misbehave"). Arthur and Eileen go to a film (''

Follow the Fleet ''Follow the Fleet'' is a 1936 American musical comedy film with a nautical theme starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their fifth collaboration as dance partners. It also features Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, wi ...

'') and wind up dancing in formal wear, first with, then in, a

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

musical number from the film, "

". All the songs are lip-synched, except Martin singing/speaking the title song at the end, but Arthur, Tom, and Eileen dance. Four paintings are recreated as ''

tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; ; ) is a static scene (performing arts), scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or theatrical scenery, scenery, and may be s ...

'' in the film: ''Hudson Bay Fur Company'' and ''20 Cent Movie'' by Reginald Marsh, and ''New York Movie'' and '' Nighthawks'' by

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

. Three of the four were painted after 1934, when the movie takes place, and all depict scenes in New York City rather than the Chicago setting of the movie.

Reception and legacy

Box office

The film was a commercial failure, grossing slightly more than $9 million at the box office against a budget of $22 million. When asked in ''Rolling Stone'' about the film's box office failure, Martin said: "I'm disappointed that it didn't open as a blockbuster and I don't know what's to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy. I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don't get it are ignorant scum."

David Begelman David Begelman (August 26, 1921 – August 7, 1995) was an American film producer, film executive and talent agent who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970s. Life and career Begelman was born to a Jewish family in New Yor ...

, head of MGM, called it "the most daring film we made. It took all these different textures and molded them... I didn't make that picture because I enjoy walking a tightrope. I made that picture because with every honest conviction you can bring to bear, I believed that film could become a film of such incredible celebrity it would enjoy very wide success. I was wrong. I was completely wrong." It was Martin's second starring role in a film, following 1979's comedy hit ''

The Jerk ''The Jerk'' is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias (from a story by Martin and Gottlieb). This was Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also f ...

'', and fans were confused to see Martin in a serious role. "You just can't do a movie like ''Pennies from Heaven'' after you have done ''The Jerk''," Martin said in a BBC interview. "Everything I had done until that time had been wildly successful," he recalled in 1987, "so that the commercial failure of the film caught me by surprise. I still think artistically it's a very good film. I've rarely seen a role that showed that kind of vulnerability in a man. It's a special film to me, and if I had to find fault, it would be that I think some of the music could have included more popular songs of the period."

Critical response

The film was given a rapturous review by

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the conse ...

in ''The New Yorker'', writing "''Pennies from Heaven'' is the most emotional movie musical I've ever seen. It's a stylized mythology of the Depression which uses the popular songs of the period as expressions of people's deepest longings—for sex, for romance, for money, for a high good time...there was never a second when I wasn't fascinated by what was happening on the screen." Kael further noted that "The dance numbers are funny, amazing, and beautiful all at once; several of them are just about perfection." excerpted in Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' called it "a rejuvenating, landmark achievement in the evolution of Hollywood musicals, and certainly the finest American movie of 1981. A brilliantly enhanced distillation of a 1978 British television play, ''Pennies'' blends the astringent with the poignant and the fanciful. It appears as a belated Hollywood counterpart to Brecht and Weill's ' Three Penny Opera.'" Other contemporary reviews were less positive.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film two stars out of four and called it "all flash and style and no heart."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''The New York Times'' reported that he watched the film "with what might best be described as baffled interest." He wrote that "All of the musical numbers are good, and a couple are great...The movie, though, is not easy to respond to. It's chilly without being provocative in any intellectual way."

Todd McCarthy Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for '' Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...

of ''Variety'' wrote "'Pennies From Heaven' is one of the most hopelessly esoteric big-budget Hollywood pictures ever made, a lugubrious, neo-Brechtian musical exercise of notable pretension and virtually no artistic payoff...In short, it's ' Penny Gate.'" Dave Kehr of ''The Chicago Reader'' wrote that "ironic, alienating musicals have been tried before, but never with such lofty contempt for the form. he filmdrips with a sense of anger and betrayal that seems wildly out of scale to its cause - the discovery (less than original) that musicals don't reproduce social reality."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...

of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that "Martin ruins what could have been one of the year's freshest and most innovative films. With Martin hamming it up, 'Pennies From Heaven' is full of socko moments, but the entire film doesn't hold together." Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that "it is like no other period musical. It is so far out, so unexpected, that it might well be described as experimental...As such, it's likely to elicit deeply divided reactions: Audiences will either love it or hate it." Peters won the Golden Globe as Best Motion Picture Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her role as Eileen Everson, a schoolteacher turned prostitute. A review of the DVD reissue asserted, "Peters brought a cocky attitude and a sexy exuberance to the musical numbers."

, who was powerless to prevent the reuse of the footage from his film ''

'', detested ''Pennies from Heaven'': "I have never spent two more miserable hours in my life. Every scene was cheap and vulgar. They don't realize that the '30s were a very innocent age, and that he filmshould have been set in the '80s – it was just froth; it makes you cry it's so distasteful." The film was nominated by the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

for its 2006 list of Greatest Movie Musicals.

Awards and nominations

;

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

* Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium – Dennis Potter (nominated) * Best Costume Design – Bob Mackie (nominated) * Best Sound - Michael J. Kohut, Jay M. Harding, Richard Tyler and Al Overton Jr. (nominated) ; Boston Society of Film Critics Awards * Best Cinematography – Gordon Willis (won) ;

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual Awards ceremony, award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally ...

* Best Motion Picture Actress, Comedy/Musical – Bernadette Peters (won) * Best Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical (nominated) * Best Motion Picture Actor, Comedy/Musical – Steve Martin (nominated) ; National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA * Best Cinematography – Gordon Willis (won)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pennies From Heaven (1981 Film) 1981 films 1980s English-language films 1980s musical drama films 1981 romantic drama films American musical drama films American romantic drama films American romantic musical films Films about adultery in the United States Films about banking Films about prostitution in the United States Films based on television series Films directed by Herbert Ross Films featuring a Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe winning performance Films produced by Rick McCallum Films set in Chicago Films set in Illinois Films set in the 1930s Films set in 1934 Great Depression films Jukebox musical films Films with screenplays by Dennis Potter Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films United Artists films 1980s American films English-language romantic drama films English-language musical drama films 1981 musical films