Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven (1981), an ambitious adaptation of Dennis Potter’s acclaimed British Broadcasting Corporation series, was celebrated by many critics but failed to connect with audiences. Steve Martin was daringly cast against type as the desperately unhappy sheet-music salesman whose fantasies—envisioned as glorious musical numbers…

…praised limited-audience fare such as Pennies from Heaven (1981), The Lonely Guy (1984), L.A. Story (1991), and Leap of Faith (1992), and he maintained his popular appeal in such films as Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Roxanne (1987), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987),

…would work together again on Pennies from Heaven (1981), for which she won a Golden Globe award for best actress in a motion picture–comedy or musical.

…song-and-dance number in the musical Pennies from Heaven (1981). Walken went on to appear in a tremendous number of other films, among them the sci-fi thriller The Dead Zone (1983), the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985), Robert Redford’s The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), the film version…