Just watched this touching and musically entertaining Bing Crosby movie on YouTube. In this one, Bing's a released prisoner who's promised a condemned man to give a note to a family named Smith. That turns out to be a grandpa (Donald Meek) with a granddaughter named Patsy (Edith Fellows). I'll stop there and just say that this movie provides both enough compelling drama and light comedy to be worthy of the length it takes to get to the fitting conclusion. And the songs are good enough to get one humming though the highlight is one done by the great Satchmo-Louis Armstrong-who provides a rollicking tune called "Skeleton in the Closet" that provides a fun thrill on its own. There's also a female orphanage rep (Madge Evans) who becomes a potential love interest for Bing. Really, Pennies from Heaven is just a dandy fine picture that should make you a fan of Crosby's music if you're not already. P.S. This movie has a couple of Our Gang/Little Rascals connections: Ms. Fellows appeared in a couple of their shorts-Birthday Blues and Mush and Milk. And while this movie was being shot, then-current members Spanky, Darla, Buckwheat, and of course Alfalfa shared a song with Crosby and Ms. Fellows on set which I found out when I saw a picture of them in the book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang" by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann. The other connection was Mickey Daniels-he plays a Hay Wagon Driver that takes Bing, Patsy, and her grandfather to the "haunted house"-who was one of the original members when the series started in 1922.
Review of Pennies from Heaven
Pennies from Heaven
(1936)
Bing Crosby brings his usual charm in the movie Pennies from Heaven
28 January 2012