Pennies from Heaven (1981 film)

the original series with Bob Hoskins was better

He was better in the new yorkers.

I saw it years ago and I don't remember any of the scenes or plot points but I do remember it made me feel uncomfortable. There was probably something awful going on in my own life and the the movie hit some nerve but because of that I'll never see it again.

I realize this is a useless post.

R3 at least you seem to be introspective. I like you.

Terribly depressing. Potter didn't write feel good material!

It’s a devastating and deeply depressing film, wholly at odds with the Reagan era. At the same time, people expected zany fun from Steve Martin, not the devastation at the heart of this story.

I think it’s a fucking masterpiece.

OP, I assume you’re joking.

It's a MARVELOUS musical, always on my top 10 list. Perhaps Martin was a mistake in the sense that people were expecting a comedy, although it did have humor.

The tone was unusual for its time, it was 1981 after all, R6 nailed it. When I praised it to the skies my greatest generation Dad said, 'yes, but why did they have the hobo kill the girl?"

And I said. "WHY CAN"T LIFE BE LIKE THE SONGS?"

Certainly, the best and most interesting film Herbert Ross ever directed. Ross was a choreographer, and the musical numbers are dazzling. I never found Martin sexy in this or anything else, but his performing is impressive here. Peters, Walken and Jessica Harper are pitch perfect.

One of the best musical numbers EVAH....

Roll along, prairie moon!

I didn't see the movie, OP, because I had loved the BBC version so much. I couldn't picture Steven Martin in Bob Hoskins' role. Hoskins' version of Parker was such a stumpy little sad-sack loser, and he looked the part. How could tall, handsome Steve Martin, who looked like a Golden Age romantic leading man, carry off such a role? And the TV series was so British in some of its themes that I couldn't imagine the story translated to America.

Now, though, I regret not seeing it on a big screen back then and will definitely give it shot. Glad you brought it up.

I remember when this movie came out. It was critically acclaimed, but it bombed badly because it was such a dark, depressing take on the Depression era.

Audiences were expecting a frivolous musical and got a tale about desperate people who lost their hopes and dreams instead.

R11 I think it works because of Martin's handsome good looks and sexiness. Who would believe any wife wouldn't want to have sex with this guy ? Yet that was the life he was living with her - and was a new man when he met Peters, who desired him (and told him so). If he was a stumpy little sad-sack loser, it would make sense no one would want him.

R13, that was part of the point of the TV series. Arthur Parker was a man no one really wanted, including his wife, who anyone could see was miles out of his league. She didn't not want him because he was ugly, though. Her frigidity (as it would have been called back then) was a big point of the show.

In your description, Martin is living a life that makes no rational sense (if you think being movie-star handsome is a guarantee a particular woman will want you). Is that supposed to make it more ironic, or more of a fantasy? What happens to Hoskins' Parker is a relentlessly realistic progression of events.

Even people with dashed hopes and dreams are complicated and contradictory. Idealistic people aren't necessarily morally upstanding people, and having dreams doesn't make you a saint. The movie refused to sentimentalize the characters or the era. This is heresy to most people. At the same time it wasn't depressing at all, at least to its fans. There's always a song to get you through.

Is this the movie in which Bernadette showed her knockers?

When asked in Rolling Stone about the film's box office failure, Martin said: "I'm disappointed that it didn't open as a blockbuster and I don't know what's to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy. I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don't get it are ignorant scum."

Ha! Agreed.

I watched the episode of the Tonight Show with Martin plugging the movie. He read excerpts of Pauline Kael's positive review, paused, jumped up, disappeared behind the curtain, and emerged a few seconds later wearing a different pair of pants. I think he did this twice. Later he instructed the audience that the movie wasn't a comedy. I don't think they believed him.

I remember loving it. Didn’t Jessica Harper put lipstick on her nipples?

I saw it on release, and quite liked it. Even the the downbeat aspects. And the fact I had a HUGE crush on Steve Martin at the time probably had a lot to do with my appreciation of the film.

Sexy Steve Martin.

R19. Yes—one of the most disturbing moments in the history of film.

They need to remake it with Ryan Gossling in the Martin role (who else, these days ?) and Margot Robbie in the Peters role (who else these days?). Anne Hathaway could take the Jessica Harper role.

Two old biddies sitting behind me got up and walked out during the lipstick on the nipples scene.

I always thought Steve Martin looked like Harrison Ford. Even now they could be cast as brothers.

R25 Martin passed up on the role of Indiana Jones in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' to do 'Pennies'. The role was then offered to Ford.

R26, Tom Selleck claims he was offered the role first.

I guess everyone was offered the role first.

Bet your bottom dollar

You and I are THROUGH!

'Cause lipstick on your nipples!

Told a tale on you!

You had to be 18 to be admitted to see it here (Ontario, Canada) but a few buddies of mine convinced me to sneak in and watch it, certain it would be wacky and outrageous and very ADULT! Picture four bored 14 year old boys and a fifth one wide-eyed, mesmerized and suppressing a squeal (me!).

I liked Steve Martin until he started doing the King Tut thing on SNL.

It should have been a one off thing but he beat it to death.

And now he’s saddled with it for life. It explains some of his bitterness.

I can't believe the movie was Rated R back then. For a musical ?

I know that in Ontario it was because of bare breasts and the word 'fuck'. This was before they came out with the 'under 14 must be accompanied by an adult' rating.