Pennies from Heaven

A strange musical set in the Depression. Arthur sells sheet music in Chicago. The songs he sells are happy and his life is not: he has no money, his marriage is over and nobody will lend to him. He genuinely believes in the world of the songs. That is where the method lies. At certain points the characters mouth to real recordings of the period. They are not singing; the original voices of the 1930s come out and the image turns into a big studio musical. When the number ends, real life continues from the same place. The contrast is deliberate: bright dance numbers stand next to poverty, assault and crime. The source is Dennis Potter's television serial made in Britain; he adapted the screenplay himself. Steve Martin plays Arthur, and it was the work in which a performer known as a comedian moved somewhere entirely different. Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken and Jessica Harper are in the cast. Herbert Ross directed. It lost heavily at the box office and was a serious disappointment for the studio; it was reassessed years later. An interesting production for anyone who likes musicals and unusual formal experiment. For a viewer expecting a cheerful musical, the film is dark and its ending is hard.