Let's Face The Music And Dance | Pennies From Heaven | Warner Archive

Pennies From Heaven (1981) #WarnerArchive #WarnerBros #PenniesFromHeaven
Steve Martin stars as a womanizing sheet-music salesman in this lip-sync "musical" based on the drama by Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective). During the Great Depression, a married sheet-music salesman falls in love with another woman and uses cheery songs from that era to imagine a better life for himself. Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters and Jessica Harper form the triangle of this razzle-dazzler in which the era's songs are used to illuminate the inner lives of its characters in contrast with their grim outer reality.
Directed By Herbert Ross
Starring Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper
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Warner Archive Collection is a branch of Warner Bros home entertainment that releases classic films and TV that were previously unreleased. Thousands of Films, TV movies and series on Blu-ray and DVD direct from the studio. WAC started as a MOD (manufactured on demand) eCommerce business in 2009 and have released over 2,500 titles spanning from the 1920s to present with distribution outlets that now include wholesale, licensee, and retail partners. Available at amzn.to/3gQeRvx.
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[@tuxguys]

Remember the first time you saw this film? Remember how you weren't sure, through most of it, how you felt about it, how you weren't even convinced that you understood the premise, and then you saw this scene... ...and you got it... ...and you recognized the film as the audacious masterpiece it is. Remember?

[@rogerfernandez7960]

This is a double treat! Classic and reboot version. I would love to have seen outtakes with Steve Martin. You can tell he is really committed. Lots and lots of talent. Bernadette Peters is flawless, she looks like she was transported back to the 30's. What a dance number.

[@GRHCU]

Fred was pretty good too, right?

[@rogerfernandez7960]

@@GRHCU Absolutely right!

[@zeddeka]

Have you seen the original 1978 BBC TV series?

[@user-uh4dv2zn5m]

best movie, and yes, i understood everything about it

[@sharannbray6513]

Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters what a great collaboration they had for years.

[@DylanRomanov]

Were they an item?

[@johanvajse8410]

@@DylanRomanov yes for about 4 years (78-82) so when this movie was made

[@madelinegriffin2990]

This is one of the most remarkable dance scenes in cinema history!! It is simply beautiful!!

[@mr.brooks8913]

@@gelsen888 did you help make the movie

[@Autostade67]

When this came out, few realized this was the REAL Steve Martin - a sensitive, intellectual artist with taste - sure, he is a bit of a Renaissance man and can most certainly be a wild and crazy guy, but this was the harbinger of what was to come, but not many people understood this, and so this film flopped. I remember hearing that it was on many a critics' ten best list for '81 and yet, not having yet seen the film, I couldn't quite figure out what the hoopla was about. Then some years later I finally saw it and the answer was clear.

[@miklosernoehazy8678]

...that this film is a musical tragedy is a major reason this film is misunderstood...

[@barbarachipman9436]

My father and i loved this movie. however i found the storyline to be depressing. Fantastic music and dancing,

[@martinmintman5279]

@@miklosernoehazy8678, yes. I've heard it called The Most Depressing Musical ever produced!

[@justpassnthru]

Such an under rated movie.

[@victorbrunswick]

I like the way Bernardette Peters is lit at the beginning of the scene. It's reminiscent of magazine covers and calendars from the 1930s.

[@mauricepowers3804]

I so love Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in this!!!!

[@Juliaflo]

You have prime taste.

[@barbarachipley357]

Steve Martin. such a talented dancer.

[@dot8605]

One of the best musical movies ever! Steve Martin is a genius!!

[@calliopibertos4020]

I have been watching various interviews on KZbin and heard that Astaire called Rogers to tell her not to see this movie. I believe they both did not understand the fact that Martin and Peters were paying homage to the American institution of a dancing pair. I adore Fred snd Ginger , but tears come to my eyes showing another couple emulating them and perpetuating their magnificence.

[@MrCrowebobby]

I don't think this number is what he had a problem with. lt was the fact that the British version of this is one of the most original things ever produced and the American version is crap except for some isolated performances.

[@martinmintman5279]

@@MrCrowebobby, my understanding is that he was unhappy with the more tawdry parts of the film and it lacked the innocence of the Astaire/Rogers films of their day (surely forgetting about the grit of so many Pre-Code films before 1935!).

[@MrCrowebobby]

@@martinmintman5279 Very possible. We all grow old and stodgy, even the great.

[@Autostade67]

People who rhapsodized over 'La La Land' clearly had never seen (or forgotten they had seen) this film (or 'One From the Heart' and 'New York, New York' for that matter). These vanguard, prescient films did once upon a time what many think is an ingenious act of novelty today - and this one did it the best, revealing what was (is?) fatal in what Henry Miller once called 'the cheap optimism of America.' Incidentally the lighting was done by the great cinematographer Gordon Willis.

[@stevekinsocal]

@@gelsen888 nutcase

[@1earflapping]

This is such a beautiful scene. It begins with Astaire and Rogers and transforms into both a tribute to such movie scenes and a commentary on the characters’ situation. Ironically, the Astaire dance sequence and the Martin-Peters sequence start from the same place yet end up in tragically different finales. Truly marvelous conception and execution.

[@romanclay1913]

Astaire & Rogers are still #1.

[@superbill1752]

This is a fine movie. Steve is so talented. Thanks so much.

[@ZeroChannelZero]

This is tremendous on so many levels. Why, until today, have I only known Steve Martin as that "wiiiiild and craAaAzy guy"???

[@martinmintman5279]

...and that persona is what tanked this film at the box office; people thought they were going to see "The Jerk--Part 2" and got something so far removed from that!

[@nonenoneonenonenone]

This movie is a masterpiece. The last great musical.

[@GRHCU]

Steve Martin was incredible in this!

[@helenlimb]

Steve Martin is a fabulous dancer!

[@juliag.5114]

This scene alone is better than the entire La La Land

[@carltrotter7622]

@@gelsen888 , if a movie can't stand up when compared to another movie from the 30s. It must not be a particularly good movie. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers *defied gravity*.

[@brettsinger9565]

They're both great films. I don't see why you have to choose....

[@juliag.5114]

Brett Singer I liked La La Land, but it was mediocre and people were acting as if it was the greatest musical ever made so that annoyed me a bit (probably why I made this comment which I didn’t even remember haha)

[@brettsinger9565]

@@juliag.5114 La La Land was a splashy, colorful, mostly feel-good musical, but debatable accomplishments in that genre. This film is a grim morality tale and one that I hold up whenever someone says the 80s were crap when it came to cinema.

[@mr.brooks8913]

@@brettsinger9565 man the 80s were crap

[@ritaandrunt5767]

Gosh it's so enchanting to see Bernadette Peter's in things like this I love her just for her magically amazing work on everything she's done like holy moly this womans got some major talent witch is a lot considering that later on in her life she would later go on to voice rita and the animaniacs version of the cheserie cat witch is also supposed to be her but I've gathered that it is indeed her just colored diffrenty from Rita's acutal real colors witch where grey and white annyways though great movie and I hope to see the full thing soon some day

[@christaselig6735]

My mother's brain is marinated in movies such as this one; I never could compete with Fred Astaire for her attention as a child.

[@stevebutler812]

Comic genius. The autobiography of Steve Martin is sad, tragic, and inspiring. The transition to film was the unpredicted success beyond his success. Thanks.

[@danielalexanderkandou9610]

I'm Really Love Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers🥰

[@michaelcondry1493]

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - the best

[@alwayssinatra583]

Amazing perfection ! Bravo 💕

[@MrDaiseymay]

When America was GREAT ! and the whole world looked to it for leadership, in everything.

[@LucyHaskell-qx6nu]

Oh wait a minute I forgot you guys are as oblivious as people were back then

[@isammolina4842]

Gran y emocionante film.Muuuuyy amargo.💔👏👀🌺🍃🌺🍃🌺🍃

[@tommyross5959]

The state of the world we live in brought me here..

[@michellelekas211]

Good commment!

[@LRay-gt2eg]

Just wonderful 🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛

[@barbarachipley357]

Love this segment. such talent!

[@wildfire2555]

Pure movie magic

[@1earflapping]

Some critics compared the movie to the British TV series that it was based on, and the comparison was wasn't favorable. The TV series *was* good, with Bob Hoskins as the music salesman. This (Martin's) version is different in that everything is bigger. I think Martin is a far better singer and dancer than Hoskins. But judge for yourself. Episode 1 of the Brit series here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaezmopma9moaLc And the 1981 version has Christopher Walken singing & dancing! kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2XMg2Oue9B4nLM

[@michellelekas211]

I get that many people, including smart film critics like Vincent Canby, didn't like this film and for reasons that make sense, but if you can't get enough morbid pathos-laden desperately faux-cheerful depression-era shit in any year, this is for you. Give me more!

[@captainldd]

magical!

[@whisblue]

Is a wonderful movie A máster pie w 😍😍😍

[@garyedwards3269]

Arthur and Eileen breach the barrier between watcher and watched, the real and the imagined. They become black and white shadows cast in Plato's Cave before our eyes. Eileen is the only one who can cross the barrier of imagination with Arthur. And so they grandly face the music and dance until the arcane barrier rises yet again. Haven't we all longed to wake up dressed to the nines on the far side of the silver screen in a madcap 1930's movie? Like Steve Martin said regarding Pennies from Heaven... "You either get it or you don't." If you haven't danced dreamily with your one true love in front of the world, you haven't lived.

[@roccovitiello7031]

Marvelous

[@johannafeminist1745]

Thanks for the interesting collection. Some famous dances are missing from the list. Hugh Grant's dance from Love Actually, Nikita's ballet stunt and Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel's cool dance in the france film l'Apartment, 1996.

[@TheSadDane]

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were both still alive when this movie came out. I'm curious if they saw it, and what their reaction was.

[@jwest3511]

Cant tell if it's Steve or a double... but who cares...a great scene.

[@clintongrandy7640]

At the Fountain Head of the River of Life!

[@davidzweiban5549]

The current 2021 Warner Brothers films are just awful super heroes comic books brought to the screen. This is a real film and wonderful.

[@Juliaflo]

You SAID it.

[@LRay-gt2eg]

🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛🌟💛🌟

[@diwu4148]

OMG！！！！！

[@robertszymanski717]

Wait a minute! I saw a film once with Martin... isn't this the movie where he had several large water bottles filled up with coins? And has a dream his son is shooting every one with a gun at the baseball field?

[@1earflapping]

Nope.

[@johanvajse8410]

the dream where his son shoots everyone is the movie Parenthood. It's a great film the water bottles filled with coins could be close, a guy dances in the rain and then there are coins everywhere

[@1957MCL]

This. In Culver City, 1981. The last gasp of Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

[@Angel_Gomez]

One of the dancers of the left looks like Robert Downey Jr

[@karsonpalmerswork]

i gotta say its so strange to see him withought a full head of white hair

[@gabrielagarcia9862]

waltz for eva and che be like:

[@JPJ740]

lucky pooch, stevie, unlike freddie, wasn't slammed in da kisser (de trop, as u will) by ginger's sequined - xtravaganza.

[@grahamflowers]

Fred Astaire hated this and asked Ginger Rogers not to go to see it she never did go to see it regards Graham Flowers

[@alexalex13131]

As I recall he did because it was showing the stark contrast between his movies and the very real depression. I found it a very flawed movie but still fascinating with wonderful performances from Steve and Bernadette. (This scene alone made it worthwhile) And by the way, Steve didn't write the movie, he was just an actor in it.

[@grahamflowers]

@@alexalex13131 Do you think Fred asked Ginger not to go see it because of those reasons no it was because it was mocking the artistic character of that dance a very sarcastic parody and poor rendition very flippant and not worth watching

[@rocee1140]

I love Bernadette but I would have laughed in his face

[@glowinthedarktvwizard]

3:22 😳

[@lizaelliott6862]

Sorry, but don’t mess with Fred and Ginger. DON’T MESS WITH FRED AND GINGER DO YOU HEAR ME

[@haranoe]

You are talking there to your own messy mind, right?

[@dfdhgtrss212]

nope

[@hankaustin7091]

huh? this scene is 10 times better than that Fred and Ginger crap!

[@arthurleng1500]

@@hankaustin7091 You've obviously never seen Fred and Ginger!!!

[@Juliaflo]

@@hankaustin7091 This is a great tribute, but nothing tops Austerlitz and McMath--Astaire and Rogers to you.

[@zascreamer100]

Poor Fred Astaire hated this film! That tird blossom said the 30’s were so much happier times than this. Of course,he never took off his tux or spats for the entire depression so how would he know the pain and suffering the rest of America was going thru. Oh! The humanity!!!

[@carltrotter7622]

Fred Astaire was a triple act. He could act, dance and sing. He had to force his way into Hollywood, he was turned down by lots of studios, one studio even said that he couldn't act, sing, was slightly bald and could dance a little. He had to carve his name into Hollywood. The movies they made were to convey happiness, in reality, Fred Astaire was a perfectionist. He would rehearse for weeks, even months on end for one scene. He hated the way he looked in the mirror and detested the idea of watching himself dance as he'd point out flaws. The movies brought people joy and were made in only a few months.

[@michaelcondry1493]

Fred Astaire was much more a gentleman than you’ll ever be

[@carltrotter7622]

@@michaelcondry1493 , than any of us will ever be.

[@BeeWhistler]

He at least praised Walken's dance number, along with Gene Kelly.

[@MrCrowebobby]

I don't think this number is what he had a problem with. lt was the fact that the British version of this is one of the most original films ever produced and the American version is crap except for some isolated performances.

[@JPJ740]

she wasn't up to him (samo/samo w/ ginger).