There's a world on both sides of the rainbow where songs come true and every time it rains, it rains Pennies from Heaven.
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.
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Character
Nostalgic, spare, character-led and grave.
- contemporarynostalgic
- sparerichly built
- character-ledplot-driven
- gravecomic
- intimateepic
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“Is the nostalgia doing the heavy lifting?”
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“Is Steve Martin the best thing in Pennies from Heaven?”
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“Are the songs the point?”
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- Wuchakon TMDB · Feb 20195/10
***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
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Cast
- Steve MartinArthur
- Bernadette PetersEileen
- Jessica HarperJoan
- Vernel BagnerisThe Accordion Man
- John McMartinMr. Warner
- John KarlenThe Detective
- Jay GarnerThe Banker
- Robert FitchAl
- Tommy RallEd
- Eliska KrupkaThe Blind Girl
Crew
- Herbert RossDirector
- Dennis PotterWriter
- Gordon WillisDirector of Photography
- Billy MayOriginal Music Composer
- Ralph BurnsOriginal Music Composer
- Richard MarksEditor
- Nora KayeProducer
- Herbert RossProducer
Where to watch
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Pairings
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Often watched with
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