Pennies from Heaven (1981)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.4/10   

Director:

Herbert Ross

Escritores:

Dennis Potter (written for the screen by)
Dennis Potter (miniseries)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

11 diciembre 1981 (USA)

Género:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Frase comercial:

There's a world on both sides of the rainbow where songs come true and every time it rains, it rains...

Plot:

In Chicago during the depression, sheet music salesman, Arthur Parker, is trying to sell his products...

Plot Keywords:

Sheet Music | Teacher | Dancer | Great Depression | Song

Premios:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

The state of the movie musical: All is not lost!

Reparto

Steve Martin	...	Arthur
Bernadette Peters	...	Eileen
Christopher Walken	...	Tom
Jessica Harper	...	Joan
Vernel Bagneris	...	The Accordion Man
John McMartin	...	Mr. Warner
John Karlen	...	The Detective
Jay Garner	...	The Banker
Robert Fitch	...	Al
Tommy Rall	...	Ed
Eliska Krupka	...	The Blind Girl
Francis X. McCarthy	...	The Bartender (as Frank McCarthy)
Raleigh Bond	...	Mr. Barrett
Gloria LeRoy	...	A Prostitute
Nancy Parsons	...	The Old Whore

También conocida como:

Dinero caído del cielo (Spain) [es]
La plata viene del cielo (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

108 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Negro y Blanco | Color (Metrocolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Iceland:12 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | USA:R (#26127) | Singapore:NC-16

Locaciones de Filmación:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Compañía:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivialidades:

At least four paintings are recreated as "tableaux vivants" in the film: "Hudson Bay Fur Company" (1932) and "20 Cent Movie" (1936), both by Reginald Marsh, and "New York Movie" (1939) and "Nighthawks" (1942), both by Edward Hopper. Three of the four were painted after 1934, when the movie takes place, and all depict scenes in New York, not Chicago, the setting of the movie. Turner Classic Movies uses the "Fur Company" and "Nighthawks" shots in their "Open All Night" interstitial.

Errores:

Anacronismos: In the classroom, a modern Canadian flag can be seen. It wasn't designed until 1964.

Citas:

[first lines]
Arthur Parker: Joan... Joanie? Sugar? C'mon, Joan... sugar... wake up, baby.
Joan Parker: No, Arthur, don't.
Arthur Parker: Oh, baby... come on, sugar.
Joan Parker: No, it's too early, Arthur.
Arthur Parker: Oh, Joan.
Joan Parker: Arthur, there isn't time.
Arthur Parker: Oh, there's always time for this. Joan, come on.
Joan Parker: Stop it, Arthur! No, don't!
Joan Parker: [getting out of bed] No... I said no!
[...]

Conexiones de Película:

References Umberto D. (1952)

Banda de Sonido:

LET'S PUT OUT THE LIGHTS AND GO TO SLEEP

The state of the movie musical: All is not lost!

Has it been over a decade since a really good movie musical has come out? "Evita" is an extended music video; and "The Bodyguard" is a stale idea from the seventies that Whitney Houston was expected to salvage with her singing. When you look back, the movie musical of recent note has taken shelter in the imagination of the animated film industry. (Disney put out almost all of the them.) But for a good musical with real actors, I can only remember movies like Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense" which is more a concert movie than a musical; "Bizet's Carmen" which is more filmed opera; and "Amadeus," and that's going back more than fifteen years.

Where are the talents that could create new musical happenings in the movies? I'm not a fan of hip-hop or rap, and there's probably enough music videos playing the stuff to fill miles of film. But its place in big screen movies is ancillary--part of the score, or a director's afterthought. If there is a movie musical that suggests what possibilities the right people with a good idea and the talent can draw from the tradition, it's "Pennies from Heaven."

This is a stunning work of movie art. To find musical numbers this evocative, you need to go back to something like "Top Hat." It's a supernal pleasure just recalling Vernel Bagneris slow-dancing in a shower of scintillating tokens or how surprised I was at the dexterity of Christopher Walken's hoofing or how close to Steve Martin's Arthur I felt when he opens his mouth and out pops Connie Boswell's haunting refrain.

I cannot deny that I find the "reality" Dennis Potter has created jarring, and by the time, Arthur paints rings around his revolted wife Joan's nipples, you feel director Herbert Ross ("Goodbye, Mr. Chips") should have spared Joan--and us--this indignity with a more discreet camera setup. If their point is to slap us back to reality after a wonderful flight of fancy, it needs to be more pointed and funnier. It's not, and some people find the lurid aspects of Potter's creations insulting. It may explain why this movie was a flop at the box office. Maybe it was too coarse and too precious all at once.

But when Ken Adams can pull together some of the most serviceably beautiful sets ever to grace a movie; when Bob Mackie pulls out all reserves and furnishes the cast with some of the most sumptuous costumes they'll ever wear; when Marvin Hamlisch makes bright, smart choices of music memorabilia; when the incomparable Gordon Willis creates the kinds of visions that leave you glued to the screen; why quibble? The state of the musical may be to some on its last breath, but with "Pennies from Heaven" to look back on, it seems to be saying "All is not lost." If the right people come together, there are wonderful things to imagine on the horizon.