Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Jimmy L. Although the movie as a whole doesn't quite come together, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981) is a unique film with a lot to like about it. It's a Depression-era period piece, which is cool. Steve Martin plays a struggling sheet music peddler. Bright and happy fantasy musical numbers are juxtaposed with the harsh realities of the Depression, highlighting the escapist value of music and movies.I love how the vintage 1930s recordings are used in the musical numbers, with the actors lip-synching to wonderful effect. It often gives the sequences a comedic edge. The larger-than-life fantasy numbers are inspired, one would assume, by Busby Berkeley's choreography in the 1930s Warner Bros. "Gold Diggers" films. And there's a great scene where Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters dance in-sync with Fred and Ginger in a scene from FOLLOW THE FLEET (1936).Steve Martin's character is a cad, but he almost makes you sympathize with him. Almost. And then his true colors shine through. Bernadette Peters is adorable in a challenging, heartbreaking role. Christopher Walken has one dynamite scene where he tap dances in a bar room.PENNIES FROM HEAVEN is not a comedy, as one might expect. It's dark, depressing, tragic, vulgar. But it is buoyed by fantastically upbeat musical numbers. It's a strange and intriguing mix. Ultimately the film is a cynical look at life. Just when you think things are bad enough for Martin's character, life gets even worse in the final act. All the while the troubles of reality are swept under the glittery musical fantasies, a sort of defense mechanism for the characters. Life should be like the songs, Martin thinks. But the film makes it clear that life is not.The movie has a lot going for it. The musical numbers are impressive, the vintage tunes are great, Peters and Walken in particular give standout performances, and director Herbert Ross stylishly quotes famous urban paintings like Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks". It's a flawed film in many ways, but there's plenty for viewers to grab onto, particularly if they're fans of the 1930s era.

Lee Eisenberg If the phrase "pennies from heaven" sounds familiar to you, it's because that song recently appeared in "The Artist". Herbert Ross's adaptation of Dennis Potter's musical of the same title has nothing to do with the song, aside from its use in the movie. Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters (his co-star in "The Jerk") play a salesman and teacher, respectively, who fall in love in Depression-era Chicago.One of the movie's notable characteristics is that it was Martin's first serious role. For the most part, I found "Pennies from Heaven" to be somewhere between mystifying and bizarre. Obviously the point is to depict a contrast between the main characters' idealism and the hopelessness of the Depression. It certainly has some good songs, but there's something jarring about using the Depression as the setting for a musical. Without a doubt, Christopher Walken has the best scene in the movie.I guess that the movie's message is to never lose hope. Even so, I thought that the ending seemed a little anticlimactic. I actually prefer Martin's and Ross's second collaboration ("My Blue Heaven", which also allowed Martin to show off his dancing skills).Also starring Jessica Harper (Phoenix in "Phantom of the Paradise").

Steven Torrey It's not surprising that Fred Astaire disliked this movie. One of the very few Hollywood characters not to be tarnished by sex scandals. One can only imagine a wounded Judy Garland actually enjoying working with someone of his character and caliber in "Easter Parade." Fred Astaire, despite the sexual innuendos inherent to his plot lines, didn't seem to want to realize his movies were ultimately about sex. Boy gets girl for what purpose? A question Fred Astaire didn't ask or didn't want an answer to.But we know lots of people do sex while listening to Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Nat 'King' Cole, Johhny Mathis, Luther Vandross and so on. Often times doing sex with people they shouldn't be doing sex with and thus Astaire, et.al. become unwitting participants / insturments of evil intention. (While candy is dandy, and liquor is quicker: music is slicker.) Innocence--lost--is core to the movie. Innocence occurs when the elderly principal of the school walks in and asserts he can still remember that grammar school ditty about the calendar. "In January..." Eileen, the teacher who had become Arthur's paramour has told the principal that she is now pregnant with Arthur's child; he gives her a few dollars to help her through but must dimiss her nonetheless. (She has a subsequent abortion--another level of innocence lost.) A following scene is with Christopher Walken in the bar, where he will transform her from innocent teacher to fallen prostitute-- "Let's Misbehave"--thus completing Arthur's transformation of her from innocent to fallen.Arthur, as the viewer knows, didn't murder anyone so the 'Hollywood' ending of him walking away with his now redeemed heroine is perfectly perfect in a bizarre way. The viewer is not innocent. The viewer walks into the theater knowing that the world is not nice, people are not nice, people are downright evil. All of this thanks to the evening news. But even in 1936--the Tiger Woods debacle hearkens to an even earlier Fatty Arbuckle disaster--1921, a disaster played out in newspapers of the day. (Arbuckle was found innocent of murder after three trials but his career was effectively ended.)So Arthur's sordid world matches the real sordid world forcing loss of innocence; but this being Hollywood--the whole point of Hollywood--none of it is real in the way the evening news is real. (And of course, not real to the TV viewer in the way that, say, famine is real in Biafra. That's why we use words like 'sympathy' / 'empathy' and 'pathos' / 'bathos'.) The film is masterful, as always, in spite of the principals, who in this case were without exception excellent and the viewer cannot imagine anyone else playing those roles.

ackstasis Christopher Walken dancing. Why this three-word pitch should compel me to look up 'Pennies from Heaven (1981),' I'm not sure, but there's no doubt that his mimed performance of "Let's Misbehave" is the film's show-stopper. Indeed, the film is full of surprises. Who, for example, could have gauged that not only is Steve Martin a competent dancer, but he's actually quite excellent? This musical, directed by Herbert Ross, was adapted by Dennis Potter from his own 1978 BBC miniseries, which I haven't yet seen. Set in Depression-era Chicago, this MGM production follows a sex-obsessed sheet music salesman who falls on hard financial times, relying on his music to remain optimistic in the face of injustice. It's an exceedingly grim tale, and the frothy musical numbers clash horribly with the murky narrative, but I nonetheless admire the filmmakers and the cast {Martin's previous starring role was in the goofball comedy 'The Jerk (1979)'} for taking part in such an audacious, offbeat project. In any case, the gamble didn't pay off, and 'Pennies from Heaven' flopped.Having seen a fair amount of 1930s musicals myself, I've come to understand how, in the midst of the Great Depression, it was endless optimism that ensured financial success. Audiences came to the cinema, not to be reminded of their financial woes, but to escape into a fantastic, glittering world of wealth and lighthearted romantic frivolity. To watch 'Top Hat (1935)' or 'Swing Time (1936),' for example, you'd never know that millions of Americans were out of work. As a counterpoint, the only vaguely-serious Astaire/Rogers musical, 'The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939),' did poorly at the box-office. This is what 'Pennies from Heaven' is all about. Rather than being about how ordinary people use fantasy to escape from their daily anguish, Ross' film more specifically examines, both affectionately and critically, the vital role of art (encompassing both music and cinema) in maintaining one's hope and sanity, similar Woody Allen's 'The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)' {both films notably utilised scenes from an Astaire/Rogers film}.What is the appeal of the Hollywood musical, anyway? Why must songs and dances be scattered regularly throughout the drama, and why would the film simply feel empty without them? The musical numbers are an emotional outlet for the film's characters, a voice-piece through which they can express feelings that they would otherwise be unable to put into words. Indeed, in this case, the songs are not even being sung by the actors themselves, but by Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Helen Kane and Irving Aaronson, musical performers who sing for an entire nation; they give voice to the emotions that the ordinary folk are experiencing. Every musical number in 'Pennies from Heaven' takes place in a setting somewhat displaced from reality, on the edge of the characters' tongues but never quite in the open. It's the sort of ineffectual daydream that gets nothing done, but if you can take refuge in this dreamworld, and acquire solace from a world otherwise devoid of comfort, then it's all right. If nothing else, our fantasies will always have a happy ending.