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Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 108 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual material, brief nudity, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dennis Potter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marvin Hamlisch and Billy May\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 18, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Christopher Walken, Vernel Bagneris, John McMartin, John Karlen, Jay Garner, Robert Fitch, Tommy Rall, Eliska Krupka, Frank McCarthy, Raleigh Bond, Gloria LeRoy, Nancy Parsons.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $9.1M (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> might be the most misunderstood film of the late 20th<\/sup> century. No, let\u2019s change that to it is<\/em>. A lot of it has to do with the leading man Steve Martin. At the time, he was best known as the \u201cwild and crazy guy\u201d that cracked people up with his wacky comedy routines (e.g. \u201cKing Tut\u201d). He was fresh off the success of his hit comedy The Jerk (his movie debut) when he was hired to play the lead in the film adaptation of the six-episode BBC miniseries. Audiences showed up expecting Martin to do his usual schtick. They weren\u2019t expecting to see him in a dramatic role. They were naturally put off. Word got around it wasn\u2019t a comedy and people stayed away in droves. It bombed badly earning only $9.1M against a $22M budget.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The other problem is people just didn\u2019t get it. Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> is a musical, but not in the traditional sense. It\u2019s what I call an anti-musical. It subverts the genre by contrasting big splashy musical numbers with the grim realities of the Depression. It\u2019s not a feel-good affair either. It won\u2019t leave you with a song in your heart or a dance in your step. It\u2019s the complete opposite of the light-hearted 30s musicals its paying homage to. Fred and Ginger, even though it includes scenes from one of their films (i.e. Follow the Fleet), would never have made a movie like this. Astaire reportedly hated it, describing it as \u201cmiserable\u201d and \u201ccheap and vulgar\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Additionally, none of the actors actually sing. Instead, they lip-synch to popular songs of the era. Admittedly, it\u2019s kind of jarring at first, hearing the voices of Astaire, Bing Crosby and Arthur Tracy coming out of the mouths of the actors, but it clicks once you get used to it. It\u2019s actually rather brilliant. On the other hand, the dancing is the real thing. Martin spent six months learning to tap dance in preparation for his role. He\u2019s quite good.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> is the brainchild of Dennis Potter who adapted his own work for the big screen, changing the setting from London to Chicago to accommodate American audiences. The task of directing it was put into the capable hands of Herbert Ross whose resume includes Funny Lady, The Sunshine Boys, The Turning Point and The Goodbye Girl. While I can\u2019t compare it to the BBC version (didn\u2019t see it), I can say Ross hits all the right notes and doesn\u2019t miss a step. It\u2019s among his finest work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Martin plays Arthur Parker, a sheet music salesman subject to flights of fancy when real life gets too grim. Let me tell you, this guy\u2019s life is a real downer. He\u2019s stuck in an unhappy marriage to Joan (Harper, Shock Treatment), an uptight and frigid woman who doesn\u2019t understand him at all. She won\u2019t give him the money she inherited from her father to realize his dream of opening his own record store. He\u2019s a dreamer who finds happiness only in his fantasies, typically the kinds of glitzy musical numbers you\u2019d see in a Busby Berkeley production. When he\u2019s refused a loan at the bank, Arthur and the banker (Garner, Buck Rogers in the 25th<\/sup> Century) burst into an elaborately choreographed number (\u201cYes! Yes!\u201d) featuring rows of tap-dancing chorus girls in sparkly costumes and lines of men in top hats and tails. It\u2019s an amazing scene.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Reality becomes a little brighter for Arthur when he sees Eileen (Jerk co-star and real-life romantic partner Peters) for the first time. He\u2019s instantly taken with her, an emotion he expresses through song (\u201cDid You Ever See a Dream Walking?\u201d). She\u2019s a lot like him in that she too escapes into fantasy musical numbers to escape her bleak existence as a rural schoolteacher who still lives at home. Arthur declares his love for Eileen and they have sex. He then leaves her to return home to his wife. It\u2019s the beginning of a downward spiral marked by an unwanted pregnancy, forced prostitution and a murder for which Arthur is falsely accused. Unlike the musicals Arthur and Eileen love so much, a happy ending isn\u2019t in the cards…. or is it?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I remember going to see Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> with my dad and little brother on New Year\u2019s Day 1982 at the City Line Theater. Much to my annoyance and embarrassment, Dad forced us to walk out because he deemed it inappropriate for us. I was pissed to say the least. I didn\u2019t get to see the whole thing until I convinced my then-girlfriend to let me watch it on cable at her house a year later. I liked it, but I didn\u2019t really get it until I rewatched it about ten years later (summer \u201992). I made a VHS copy that I must have watched about a dozen times before university resumed in the fall. I felt like a member of an exclusive club made up of people who really understood the film.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The musical numbers, choreographed by Danny Daniels, are incredible. I have a few favorites starting with the aforementioned bank number. Another great one takes place in Eileen\u2019s classroom which transforms into an all-white set with little pianos in place of the desks. The kids, all clad in white suits and dresses, play instruments and tap-dance on the desk pianos while Peters sings\/synchs \u201cLove Is Good for Anything That Ails You\u201d. The real show-stopper, however, is Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter) in his one scene. He plays a pimp named Tom. By way of seducing Eileen into her sordid new career, he does a striptease while singing\/synching \u201cLet\u2019s Misbehave\u201d. WOW! That guy can dance! That\u2019s when I learned Walken was a trained Broadway actor. I\u2019m also fond of the scene where Martin and Peters take the place of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (\u201cLet\u2019s Face the Music and Dance\u201d) while watching Follow the Fleet at the cinema. Filmed in gorgeous black and white, it looks amazing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The cinematography by Gordon Willis is masterful and gorgeous. He perfectly captures both the bleak reality of the era and the bright fantasy life of the protagonist. The juxtaposition of the two is a ride in that the joy one gets out of the musical numbers comes to a sudden end with a startling emotional crash. Ross handles this balancing act like the pro that he is. I love how Willis recreates famous paintings- most notably, Edward Hopper\u2019s \u201cNighthawks\u201d and \u201cNew York Movie\u201d- as tableaux vivants<\/em> (French for \u201cliving pictures\u201d). It\u2019s a nice touch.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The cast does a marvelous job. You\u2019d never know it, but Martin has serious dramatic chops. He takes chances as an actor too, especially in playing an unlikable SOB who treats the women in his life horribly. That he does so convincingly is a testament to his range. Peters is sweet and heartbreaking as the fallen woman Eileen, a believer in love who stands by her louse of a man. Harper crushes it as the unhappy wife scared by Arthur\u2019s sexual urges. Walken is simply GREAT!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0HOWEVER, the most interesting character in Pennies from Heaven <\/strong>is the unnamed hobo played by avant-garde theater director Vernel Bagneris. It might seem like he\u2019s of little importance to the story, but that\u2019s simply not so. Here\u2019s how I see it. It\u2019s no coincidence that Arthur picks him up hitchhiking. It was meant to happen. The hobo, a street musician who plays hymns on the accordion for spare change, is an angel sent by God to observe Arthur. When he commits the sin of infidelity, he punishes him by committing the murder that Arthur is ultimately accused of. That would also explain the opening and closing shots.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It\u2019s not the easiest film to watch, but Pennies from Heaven<\/strong> is definitely a rewarding and unforgettable viewing experience. There\u2019s so much to it. I can see why audiences stayed away. It was a movie ahead of its time. If you tried it then and didn\u2019t like it, I recommend you give it another shot. You might just like it now. Or maybe not. Like all art, it\u2019s subjective. Me, I LOVE IT!<\/p>\r\n Pennies from Heaven (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 108 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual material, brief nudity, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dennis Potter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marvin Hamlisch and Billy May\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 18, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Christopher Walken, Vernel Bagneris, John McMartin, John Karlen, Jay Garner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Pennies-from-Heaven-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Pennies-from-Heaven-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C957&ssl=1\")
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