Steve Martin

Bernadette Peters

Jessica Harper

Vernel Bagneris

John McMartin

John Karlen

Jay Garner

Robert Fitch

Tommy Rall

Eliska Krupka

Christopher Walken

Francis X. McCarthy

Raleigh Bond

Gloria LeRoy

Nancy Parsons

Toni Kaye

Shirley Kirkes

Jack Fletcher

Hunter Watkins

Arell Blanton

George P. Wilbur

M.C. Gainey

Mark Campbell

Mark Martinez

Duke Stroud

Joseph G. Medalis

Richard Blum

William Frankfather

James Mendenhall

Jim Boeke

Robert Lee Jarvis

Luke Andreas

Will Hare

Joshua Cadman

Paul Valentine

Bill Richards

John Craig

Alton Ruff

Karla J. Franko

Robin Hoff

Linda Montana

Bunney Brooke

Twink Caplan

Lillian D'Honau

Barbara Nordella

Dean Taliaferro

Wayne Storm

Gene Ross

Edward J. Heim

Dave Adams

Greg Finley

Paul Michael

Joe Ross

Tammy O'Rourke

Herbert Ross

Dennis Potter

Murray Schwartz

Harry V. Lojewski

L. Andrew Stone

Sidney Wolinsky

Danny Daniels

George Korngold

Richard L. Anderson

Nora Kaye

Christopher Burian-Mohr

Stephen Purvis

Kenneth Wannberg

Stephen Hunter Flick

Warren Hamilton Jr.

Mark Mangini

John Dunn

Hal Bell

Emmitt-Leon O'Neill

Conrad E. Palmisano

Jane Schwartz Jaffe

Richard Marks

Ross Brown

Garrett Lewis

Bob Mackie

Philip Harrison

Gordon Willis

Fred Tuch

Bernie Cutler

Ken Adam

Hank McCann

Rick McCallum

Seymour Klate

Ralph Burns

Billy May

Drama

Music

Romance

Pennies from Heaven

Hera Productions

SLM Production Group

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

***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 was shot in Illinois (Chicago & Galena) and Southern Cal (the Los Angeles area & Wasco).

GRADE: C

English

Pennies From Heaven - Trailer

Pennies from Heaven 1981 TV trailer