Pennies from Heaven (U.S., 1981)


Figure 1.--This is the dream scene from "Pennies from Heaven". A teacher's bored, listless class turns into a group of brilliant, energetic mussicians and dancers. They dance on top of their pianos. The children are all emacuately costumed in white. The girls wear short white party dresses. The boys wear white short pants suits with white knee socks.

This is one of the lesser known American musicals. A depression era sheet musician salesman affects the lives of those around him. Rather a dull movie, but there is one interesting scene. The movie starred Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters who plays a teacher stuck in a class with drably dressed, bored students. The teacher begins to dream in her dull class. In her dream she transfers them to be a lively, talented group. Sudenly the scene turns into a fantasy scene with all the students appearing in emaculate outfits and launching into a complicated and lively dance scene. The children were casually dressed in a variety of drab outfits, but are instantly changed into all white outfits. The girls all wear white party frocks and the boys wear white short pants tuxedos with white knee socks. Quite a lengthy little scene. There is an good shot of the drummer's suit. They even get up on their tables so you can get a good view of their costumes.

Filmology

This is one of the lesser known American musicals. There is considerable debate about this film. Many critics saw it as inventive, but it was a abject failure at the box office. The most often used term by reviewers in assessing this film is "flawed". The film was directed by Herbert Ross. It is a lavisly produced musical adaptatied from the popular BBC series. The British TV miniseries set in London had to be boiled down to feature film legth. As in typical musicals, dialog is suddenly shifted to song nd dance. The novel approch here is that the drab Depression era street scenes suddenly become fantastic movie sets. The main character sells sheet music and the musical dreams scenes are the lyrics of his sheet music come to life. The film is based on Dennis Potter's somewhat bizarre adaptation. .

Setting

The film is set in the bleak streets of 1930s depression-era Chicago. The streets servecas the backdrop for the song and dance numbers.

Cast

The film centers on the salesman Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) and naive school teacher Eileen(Bernadette Peters) he falls in love with. They give what some reviwers consider to be a stunning musical performances. The main character played by Martin is not that nice of a person. He is not faithful to his wife. He has lovers nd tries to make an innocent school teacher. Yet we can't help, but like him, rather similar to Professor Hill in "Music Man". Arthur's frigid, but financially secure wife is Joan (Jessica Harper). The characters in the longer TV miniseries, escepically Jian, were more complex and understandable, perhaps why the movie did not succeed ith the public.

Child Dancers

I'm not sure who the child dancers in the film are. I do not know if the producers went to some school or just recruited and trained the children themselves. There are theatrical groups where the children are trained in acting skills and other perorming skills like dance. They do not play a role in the film except for the scene here in the class taught by Eileen.


Figure 2.--As a part of the musical scene, the children not only performed a tap dancing routein, but also played a variety of muscal instruments. This boy plays the drums.

Musical

Arthur's sheet music and adventures turn the bleak Chicago streets into lavishly staged musical numbers in the tradition of Busby Berkeley. Here Martin and Peters give wondrful performances. There are some novel approaches to the musical interludes inclluding a photographic blow-up of Depression-era homeless and a tableaux set as Edward Hopper painting. the idea is that "There must be someplace where them songs are for real." The answer provided is: Only in your dreams. The scene pertinent to HBC deals with Eileen who is stuck in a class with drably dressed, bored students. The teacher begins to dream in her dull class. In her dream she transfers them to be a lively, talented group. Sudenly the scene turns into a fantasy scene with all the students appearing in emaculate outfits and launching into a complicated and lively dance scene. The dance scene is a tap number.

Plot

A depression era traveling sheet musician salesman affects the lives of those around him. He is an idealist, entranced by the sheet music he seels--but objectionable in many ways. Rather a dull movie, but there is one interesting scene. The movie starred Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters who plays a naive teacher. During one of his none to successful sales trip, Arthur meets a pathetic homeless man--the Accordion Man (Vernel Bagneris) who plays on street corners. After meeting Eileen he vascilates. First he leaves and then returns to his wife. The magic has gone out of their lives. His wife conveniently has an inheritance and Arthur needs money to open a sheet music store.

Costuming

The children were casually dressed in a variety of drab outfits, but are instantly changed into all white outfits. The girls all wear white party frocks with short ankle socks and the boys wear white short pants tuxedos with white knee socks. Quite a lengthy little scene. There is an good shot of the drummer's suit. They even get up on their pianos so you can get a good view of their costumes. Girls might have worn a party frock like these, but boys would have not worn tuxeodes like this. Of course this is all a scene imagined by the day dreaming teacher and this is how some teachers and mothers mat have liked to dress the children to convert them into perfect ngels--which is what the white represents.

British Production

A British reader writes, "I remember watching the original British "Pennies From Heaven",Dennis - although I don't recall any flashback or musical scenes from the schoolroom.The U.S. version must have added this in."








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Created: 4:07 AM 9/6/2004
Last updated: 9:09 PM 9/20/2006