Pennies from Heaven

Fired, pregnant and hungry schoolteacher Eileen (Bernadette Peters) wanders into a bar and meets pimp Tom (Christopher Walken) for his show-stopping strip-tease number, mimicking the Cole Porter song recorded by Irving Aaronson and His Commanders, in Pennies From Heaven, 1981.

With fellow traveling salesmen Al (Robert Fitch, with glasses) and Ed (Tommy Rall, mustache), Arthur (Steve Martin) concedes it’s a girl he’s on about, song by Abel Baer and Dave Oppenheim, recorded by the Boswell Sisters and the Dorsey Brothers orchestra, in Pennies From Heaven, 1981.

Working his east-central Illinois sheet-music sales territory, Arthur (Steve Martin) haggles with shopkeeper Barrett (Raleigh Bond) then sees Eileen (Bernadette Peters) for the first time, miming the Bing Crosby recording of the song by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon, in Pennies From Heaven, 1981.

Opening from director Herbert Ross and writer Dennis Potter (from his BBC TV series), Steve Martin as sheet-music salesman Arthur, Jessica Harper his wife Joan, with the first mimicked song, “I’ll Never Have To Dream Again,” recorded by Elsie Carlisle, in the retro-musical hybrid Pennies From Heaven, 1981.

A sheet music salesman finds love in depression-era Chicago in Pennies From Heaven (1981), starring Steve Martin.