Pennies from Heaven

A dazzling downer of a musical and one of the more interesting works to emerge from the last gasps of '70s-era critical Hollywood, the film version of Dennis Potter's remarkable BBC series Pennies From Heaven (1981) provocatively dissects the power of movie-made fantasy. Contrasting bleak, Edward Hopper-esque Depression era reality with sumptuous Art Deco illusions, Potter and director Herbert Ross illuminate the divide between sheet-music salesman Arthur Parker's sordid life and the musical dreams that give him hope. Stars Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters masterfully dance and lip-synch their way through elaborately imagined 1930s numbers (including outrageous Busby Berkeley spectacles and a potent reworking of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' "Let's Face the Music and Dance"), but the showstopper is Christopher Walken's saucy "Let's Misbehave" tap solo. Still, bucking the usual musical uplift, Martin's Arthur remains a doomed sex addict and Peters' Eileen an unrepentant fallen "good girl." Along with an Oscar nomination for Potter's screenplay, Bob Mackie's costumes earned Academy approval, while Gordon Willis' rich cinematography garnered several critics' prizes. Despite favorable reviews and Martin's star status, however, audiences did not appreciate either his serious performance or the film's modernist conception, and Pennies From Heaven failed. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide