Pennies from Heaven

Steve Martin Director: Herbert Ross Herbert Ross

Overview

Adapted from Dennis Potter's landmark British TV miniseries and relocated to the United States during the Depression, Pennies from Heaven dramatizes how popular songs both shaped and reflected the thoughts of people living through economic (and emotional) hardship. Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) is a sheet music salesman who believes that he can spot a hit a mile away and wants to open his own store. But he can't get a bank loan and his wife Joan (Jessica Harper), who has savings left to her by her father, refuses to give him the money. Also, while Arthur has a fierce sexual appetite, Joan generally refuses his advances. While on the road, Arthur meets Eileen (Bernadette Peters), a shy schoolteacher as desperate for affection as Arthur is hungry for sex. They begin an affair, which leads to tragedy for both. Punctuating the drama of Pennies from Heaven are elaborate musical numbers in which the characters lip-synch to popular songs of the day, which at once lift their hopes and reflect their fears. Arthur's buoyant tap number to "My Baby Said Yes" and Eileen's saucy rendition of "Love is Good for Anything That Ails You" are reflections of their needs for money and love, and their pas de deux on "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is at once an escape and an acknowledgement of their hopelessness.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/06/2014
UPC:	0888574051709
Original Release:	1981
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Archives
Time:	1:48:00
Sales rank:	22,476

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Steve Martin	Arthur
Bernadette Peters	Eileen
Christopher Walken	Tom
Jessica Harper	Joan
John McMartin	Mr. Warner
John Karlen	The Detective
Robert Fitch	Al
Eliska Krupka	The Blind Girl
Richard Butler	Actor
Jay Garner	Banker
Joseph Medalis	Counterman
Conrad Palmisano	Actor
Nancy Parsons	Old Whore
Bill Richards	Actor
Thomas Rall	Ed
Vernel Bagneris	Accordion man
Frank McCarthy	Bartender
Raleigh Bond	Mr. Barrett
Gloria Le Roy	Prostitute
Shirley Kirks	Tart
Jack Fletcher	Elevator Operator
Arell Blanton	Motorcycle Police
Jim Boeke	Hangman
George Wilbur	Motorcycle Police
M.C. Gainey	Young Policeman
Duke Stroud	Counterman
Richard Blum	Pool Player
William Frankfather	Pool Player
James Mendenhall	Warden
Robert Lee Jarvis	Policeman
Luke Andreas	Customer
Will Hare	Father Everson
Joshua Cadman	Jumbo
Paul Valentine	Bar Patron
John Craig	Bar Patron
Alton Ruff	Bar Patron
Karla Bush	Bank Secretary
Robin Hoff	Bank Secretary
Twink Caplan	Bank Customer
Wayne Storm	Bank Guard
Gene Ross	Bank Teller
Greg Finley	Bank Teller
Joe E. Ross	Bank Teller
Melissa Hayden	Actor
Dave Adams	Bank Teller
Paul Michael	Actor

Technical Credits

Dennis Potter

Herbert Ross	Director,Producer
Ken Adam	Associate Producer,Production Designer
Christopher Burian-Mohr	Set Decoration/Design
Ralph Burns	Score Composer
Bernard Cutler	Art Director
Danny D. Daniels	Choreography
Warren Hamilton	Sound Editor
Marvin Hamlisch	Score Composer
Philip Harrison	Production Designer
Martha Johnston	Set Decoration/Design
Nora Kaye	Producer
Garrett Lewis	Set Decoration/Design
Bob Mackie	Costumes/Costume Designer
Richard Marks	Editor
Billy May	Score Composer
Rick McCallum	Executive Producer
Al Overton	Sound/Sound Designer
Dennis Potter	Original Story,Screenwriter
Glen Robinson	Special Effects
L. Andrew Stone	Asst. Director
Fred Tuch	Art Director
Gordon Willis	Cinematographer

Editorial Reviews

In 1981, Steve Martin was known primarily for his "wild and crazy guy" persona, thanks to his live performances, platinum-selling comedy albums, and such early movie vehicles as The Jerk. This Americanized version of Dennis Potter’s highly praised BBC-TV miniseries represented a risky departure for Martin, and while the film was not terribly successful in its theatrical run, it has found an appreciative audience in the years since, thanks to video and cable-TV exposure. This new DVD edition should win over a new group of fans. Martin plays Arthur Parker, an unsuccessful sheet-music salesman disenchanted with both his career and his marriage to drab, passionless Joan (Jessica Harper). Arthur escapes reality by inhabiting a fantasy world in which the songs he loves spring vividly to life. In this Technicolor world of the imagination, his tawdry real-life affair with schoolteacher Eileen Everson (Bernadette Peters) seems like a joyous romance straight out of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical. Director Herbert Ross (Play It Again, Sam) has his hands full trying to put a positive spin on this downbeat story, but he shrewdly employs the terpsichorean talents of cast members in several showstopping dance numbers. Christopher Walken, in a small but pivotal role as a lecherous pimp, practically steals the movie with one bravura tap dance solo. Martin’s character is not especially sympathetic, but his adroit portrayal of the amoral Arthur shows surprising depth. It’s really a tour de force, and although it disappointed some of his fans back in 1981, today this characterization ranks among his very best screen performances. Given a second chance, Pennies from Heaven invariably benefits from reappraisal.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

A dazzling downer of a musical and one of the more interesting works to emerge from the last gasps of '70s-era critical Hollywood, the film version of Dennis Potter's remarkable BBC series Pennies From Heaven (1981) provocatively dissects the power of movie-made fantasy. Contrasting bleak, Edward Hopper-esque Depression era reality with sumptuous Art Deco illusions, Potter and director Herbert Ross illuminate the divide between sheet-music salesman Arthur Parker's sordid life and the musical dreams that give him hope. Stars Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters masterfully dance and lip-synch their way through elaborately imagined 1930s numbers (including outrageous Busby Berkeley spectacles and a potent reworking of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' "Let's Face the Music and Dance"), but the showstopper is Christopher Walken's saucy "Let's Misbehave" tap solo. Still, bucking the usual musical uplift, Martin's Arthur remains a doomed sex addict and Peters' Eileen an unrepentant fallen "good girl." Along with an Oscar nomination for Potter's screenplay, Bob Mackie's costumes earned Academy approval, while Gordon Willis' rich cinematography garnered several critics' prizes. Despite favorable reviews and Martin's star status, however, audiences did not appreciate either his serious performance or the film's modernist conception, and Pennies From Heaven failed.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola

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