Pennies from Heaven (1981)

Directed by

Herbert Ross

Genre

drama film, musical film, romance film, satanic film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 48m

Rated

R

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 105 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A traveling sheet music salesman in Depression-era Chicago dreams of escaping his unhappy marriage and boring life. He pursues a woman he meets on the road while lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs from the 1920s and 1930s.

melancholicdreamlikeunsettlingvisually lushbittersweetwhimsicalbleakromantic

What happens

Pennies from Heaven is a 1981 American musical romantic drama film directed by Herbert Ross, based on the 1978 BBC television drama. Dennis Potter adapted his screenplay from the BBC series for American audiences, changing its setting from London and the Forest of Dean to Depression-era Chicago and rural Illinois. The film stars Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken and Jessica Harper. Choreographed by Danny Daniels, the film includes musical numbers consisting of actors lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs of the 1920s–30s, such as "Let's Misbehave", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "Let's Face the Music and Dance" and the title song. While positively received by critics, it was a box office bomb, grossing just a fraction of its budget. It received three nominations at the 54th Academy Awards, but didn't win any of them. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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• See China and Die (1981)
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• Devil-May-Care (1929)
• Absence of Malice (1981)