KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

grizzledgeezer "Pennies from Heaven" is thematically so similar to "Penny Serenade" (a classic tear-jerker) that one might think was Columbia's attempt to (forgive me) cash in on the success of "Penny Serenade" (another Columbia film). But the latter came five years later. "Pennies from Heaven" is little more than a Bing Crosby vehicle -- one badly in need of a tune-up.It starts off well enough, with a man about to be executed for murder handing a letter to a self-styled "troubadour" (Bing Crosby) to be delivered to the family of the man he killed. Once Crosby finds them, he makes a half-hearted effort to help (he's on his way to Venice), but his affection for the man's daughter (Edith Fellows) encourages him to stay. When a social worker (Madge Evens) comes after the girl to put her in an orphanage, Crosby announces a plan to open a restaurant.It is at this point that the story runs off the rails of plausibility, crashing into a chasm deeper than any Wile E Coyote ever fell into. I need not describe the fore-ordained and saccharine ending, made possible by the miracle of Arbitrary Plotting.There are good things. If you like Der Bingle, you get to hear him introduce the classic title song. Louis Armstrong (whom Crosby insisted be hired) is a treat, Edith Fellows is an agreeably anarchic child, and Stanley Andrews (the host of "Death Valley Days") has an unbilled role as a plainclothes officer. Evans, though, is sufficiently blah one wonders how a woman-hater like Crosby's character would ever find her attractive.Jo Swerling wrote better scripts than this one, but Norman McLeod's direction is tight and brisk. Note his unusual camera angles, as when Fellows looks through her opera glasses at Crosby.Nevertheless, "Pennies from Heaven" is one of those "less than the sum of its parts" films in which everyone's contribution is wasted on a poor story. You may safely skip it.PS: Crosby's character says at one point that he was born in Washington state -- which the real Crosby was. (Different city, though.)

mark.waltz While Shirley Temple may have dominated the mid 1930's at the box office, she isn't representative of real children during the late depression. More realistic and even better actors included her own rival, Jane Withers, Warner Brothers' Sybil Jason, and in this Bing Crosby musical from Columbia, the divine Edith Fellowes. Not as bratty as Withers or as sweet as Jason, she certainly acted rings around Ms. Temple, certainly coming off as much more natural. No tears, no cloying cuteness and no overly sweet smile to take your mind of the depression, she was like someone you'd have seen a few years before in Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series.Bing is getting out of prison for a crime he didn't commit and goes to visit the orphaned young girl (Fellowes) and her grandfather (Donald Meek) to help them out after agreeing to assist them from the man who killed her father. Fellowes is hiding out from the most notorious of all 1930's kiddie nightmares: the truant officer. Here, that official isn't the beak-nosed Clarence Wilson of the "Our Gang" series, but a beautiful young lady (Madge Evans) who only has the child's best interest at heart. Meek and Fellowes fall instantly under Crosby's spell, especially after he introduces them to the haunting title song. They open a restaurant and nightclub specializing in chicken dinners with a haunted house theme, hoping this will prevent Evans from taking poor Edith away. But in true depression fashion, the government wins, and Crosby does all he can to win her back-this time legally and for good.A pleasing musical comedy, this is aided by the appearance of Louis Armstrong and his band who perform in the very funny haunted house dining sequence where all sorts of funny gags are leashed on the unsuspecting customers. It is all in good taste, that is with the exception of the revelation that black Armstrong is a chicken thief, quite a stereotype of this era. While this does sound a bit like one of Shirley Temple's 20th Century Fox films, it is actually a bit more adult and certainly not as sentimental. Meek will touch your heart as the milquetoast grandpa, and a very funny parade sequence (involving Fellowes hiding out inside a drum!) is another highlight.

Neil Doyle PENNIES FROM HEAVEN has an improbable story about a drifter (BING CROSBY) who plays the lute and sings for his supper at a nightclub he opens at The Haunted House Cafe. The house has been inherited by DONALD COOK and EDITH FELLOWS from a prisoner on death row who wills the house to them as atonement for having killed the girl's father and is turned into a café by Bing and his friends, including LOUIS ARMSTRONG who is the vocalist and trumpet player.The main focal of the plot is Bing's relationship with bratty little Edith Fellows, who causes no end of trouble throughout and is the most irritating factor about the whole thing although she's meant to be amusing and cute. MADGE EVANS as a social worker brings some sense of practicality to the whole affair and DONALD COOK provides some good humor, but the script meanders all over the place.Crosby makes the role of the drifter pleasant enough but his character is never quite believable. Only when the musical numbers are played does the film reach any real level of entertainment, particularly during the "haunted" number at the café featuring a skeleton dance while Louis Armstrong belts out the song.This is a harmless trifle in Bing's career, on loan to Columbia before his big successes at Paramount, and mostly because he delivers a few songs in his unmistakable crooning style, particularly the title tune.Bing is his usual amiable self, but the script is miserable. He is credited with giving Armstrong a break by insisting that he be given prominent billing, a breakthrough for Louis. They would appear in four films together throughout Crosby's career.

willrams I was ten years old and this was one of Bing Crosby's earliest films. Oh how I used to enjoy all his films! I believe this is the first film he did with the great Louis Armstrong. What a joy and thrill to all that great music; same for Birth of the Blues.