There's a world on both sides of the rainbow where songs come true and every time it rains, it rains Pennies from Heaven.
Director: Herbert Ross
Writer: Dennis Potter
Producer: Nora Kaye, Herbert Ross
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent school teacher.
108 min
Rating: 6.053/10
Released
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Top Cast
Steve Martin
Arthur
Bernadette Peters
Eileen
Jessica Harper
Joan
Vernel Bagneris
The Accordion Man
John McMartin
Mr. Warner
John Karlen
The Detective
Movie Info
Director: Herbert Ross
Writer: Dennis Potter
Producer: Nora Kaye, Herbert Ross
Production Companies: Hera Productions, SLM Production Group, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Countries: United States of America
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Self-Contained Enclosure
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What Others Said
Wuchak:
***Imagination helps endure the harsh realities of the Depression***
In the 1930s a struggling sheet music salesman (Steve Martin) tries to escape his dreary existence with his prudish wife (Jessica Harper) to pursue his dream and a cute schoolmarm (Bernadette Peters). The imaginations of the characters help them deal with the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Vernel Bagneris plays a homeless accordion player while Christopher Walken is on hand as a pimp.
“Pennies from Heaven” (1981) is a drama/musical based on the 1978 British mini-series and written by the same guy. The song & dance routines occur about every 7 minutes and are an amusingly kinetic counterpoint to the sad Depression-era dramatics. Martin is his usual comical self, but the drama is definitely not a comedy and contains some seriously unsavory moments.
“Pennies from Heaven” was the precursor to musicals like “Chicago” (2002) and “Nine” (2009), but those films have superior reality-based stories and far better women, especially “Chicago” as far as the women go. But Bernadette is a joy to behold as usual; and Martin is charismatic despite playing a man of dubious character.
The movie runs 1 hour, 48 minutes and was shot in Illinois (Chicago & Galena) and Southern Cal (the Los Angeles area & Wasco).
GRADE: C