Forgotten Film Friday (on a Sunday): Pennies From Heaven

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

Sheet music salesman Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) begins to have an affair with a schoolteacher in 1934. His wife does everything she can to win him back. When Arthur breaks off the affair, the schoolteacher becomes a prostitute. But fate may reunite her and Arthur. Life is tough in the depression. Sometimes the characters need an escape, even if it's into a fantasy music and dance number.

Herbert Ross' Pennies From Heaven was a box office bomb in 1981, recouping just a fraction of it's 22 million dollar budget. The film was critically acclaimed and even gained an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay. But the audiences just didn't turn up for this one. It makes sense. Entering 1981 Steve Martin was a comedy all-star, whether it be guesting on Saturday Night Live, his standup, or the 1979 classic The Jerk. Audiences weren't ready to see him play a pretty unlikeable guy in a weird musical where the song and dance numbers are fantasies of the cast escaping their pretty bleak lives.

The joy of this movie is the use of dance and song numbers as fantasy sequences, similar in vein to Chicago. The soundtrack are all old songs from the '20s and '30s. The cast lip synch to them, which works. I can't describe it. It just makes it all fit together. The cast is giving it their all, which makes us buy into it. There's a lot of highlights but my faves are the bank number, the title song, and amazing number with a show stealing Christopher Walken.

Personally I love this movie. Martin is sensational as Arthur and I like the against type character he is playing. Martin actually always plays unlikeable characters well. Look at films like Leap of Faith and The Spanish Prisoner. He's downright a scumbag in The Spanish Prisoner. Arthur is a fascinating character as we are with him sort of but she he's kind of a bad guy. I won't spoil anything but where he ends up feels earned.

It's available for rental for under five bucks from Amazon. I think it deserves some reevaluation. Especially for Steve Martin fans who might have passed it up.

Comments

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Let's kick off the spooky season with a bona fide classic. I love the horror genre, but not much really scares or creeps me out. Most horror films I just watch and enjoy. However, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of those that really gets under my skin, and not just because the Sawyer family are eating people. The way Tobe Hooper shoots the film gives it an almost documentary feel. If you have never seen 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' you should probably fix that immediately. Do I need to explain what it's about? A group of '70s kids is driving across Texas in a van and runs afoul of the Sawyer family, including the man himself, Leatherface. It's a classic of the horror genre and one of the pioneers of the '70s and '80s horror boom. The film has a reputation for being sickeningly bloody and violent, but that is not true. It's essentially a bloodless film, which makes it even more horrifying. Most of the violence...

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...

John Candy month: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

A retrospective by Brooks Rich I decided to extend John Candy month for a bit as I had some personal issues come up. So just wrapping up some film I wanted to cover. Works for me. Just an excuse to keep talking about a master like Candy. Steve Martin is Neil Page, a marketing executive who is flying from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving. While trying to hail a cab he trips over a large trunk and has his taxi stolen by Del Griffith, the immortal John Candy, who ends up being one of Neil's seat mates on the plane. Bad weather in Chicago strands them in Wichita. Determined to make up for ruining Neil's travel plans, Del swears to get Neil home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving. Hilarity ensues. I mean come on. Who doesn't love Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? This is Candy's best film and I don't think that's a hot take. Sure some people might vote for Uncle Buck but not me. My vote is for this masterpiece of '80s comedy. It is also John Hughes best fi...

Cinema Basement

Search This Blog