Pennies From Heaven

Philandering 1930s sheet music salesman Arthur Parker escapes from his dull life by fantasizing elaborately choreographed musical numbers in which he and the other characters lip-sync to original recordings of popular 1930s music.

1978 BBC mini-series created by Dennis Potter starring Bob Hoskins, Gemma Craven, and Cheryl Campbell.

Later remade as a 1981 film starring Steve Martin, Jessica Harper, Bernadette Peters and Christopher Walken.


 * Corrupt the Cutie: From meek schoolteacher to hooker in a few months.
 * Deconstruction: Of Depression-era musicals.
 * Downer Ending
 * Nothing but Hits: Averted - many of the songs are rather obscure.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Christopher Walken in his "Let's Misbehave" lip-syncing tap-dancing strip-tease.
 * The best part, of course, is Bernadette Peter's reaction.
 * All the other musical numbers were done as set pieces; showing her reactions as an observer is somewhat distracting and takes away from the whole premise of the film.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: Basically the central concept of both the movie and the mini-series.