Connection
The Five Pennies is a american film of genre Drama directed by Melville Shavelson released in USA on 18 june 1959 with Danny Kaye
The Five Pennies (1959)
If you like this film, let us know!
Add to a movie listThe Five Pennies is a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Loring Red Nichols. Other cast members includes Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Bobby Troup, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld. The film was directed by Melville Shavelson.
The film received four Oscar nominations: Best Musical Scoring (Leith Stevens), Best Original Song (Danny Kaye's wife Sylvia Fine), Best Cinematography (Daniel L. Fapp), and Best Costumes (Edith Head).
The real Red Nichols recorded all of Kaye's cornet playing for the film soundtrack. The other musicians in Red's band were not asked to provide their musical contributions and the sound of his "band" was supplied by session players.
Synopsis
Red Nichols (Kaye) is a small-town cornet player who moves to New York City in the 1920s and finds work in a band led by Wil Paradise (Crosby). He meets and marries singer Willia Stutsman, a.k.a. "Bobbie Meredith" (Bel Geddes), and the two form their own Dixieland band called "The Five Pennies" (a play on Nichols' name, since a nickel equals five pennies). As their popularity peaks, their young daughter Dorothy (Susan Gordon) contracts polio and the family leaves the music business, moving to Los Angeles. When Dorothy becomes a teen (Tuesday Weld) she learns of her father's music career and persuades him go on a comeback tour. The tour borders on failure until several notable musicians from Nichols' past appear to save the day.Actors
Danny Kaye
(Red Nichols)
Barbara Bel Geddes
(Wila Stutsman)
Harry Guardino
(Tony Valani)
Bob Crosby
(Will Paradise)
Tuesday Weld
(Teenaged Dorothy Nichols)
Comments
Leave comment :
Suggestions of similar film to The Five Pennies
There are 89 films with the same actors, 18 films with the same director, 65656 with the same cinematographic genres (including 227 with exactly the same 3 genres than The Five Pennies), 6745 films with the same themes (including 4359 films with the same 2 themes than The Five Pennies), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked The Five Pennies, you will probably like those similar films :
The Seven Little Foys (1955)
, 1h33Directed by Melville Shavelson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Bob Hope, James Cagney, Eddie Foy, Jr., Milly Vitale, George Tobias, Angela Clarke
Rating66%
Vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy (Bob Hope), who has vowed to forever keep his act a solo, falls in love with and marries Italian ballerina Madeleine (Milly Vitale). While they continue to tour the circuit, they begin a family and before long have seven children. After the tragedy of the Iroquois Theater Fire threatens to stall Eddie's career, he comes to realize that his children are worth their weight in gold. The second eldest Foy, Charley, narrates the film.
Up in Arms (1944)
, 1h46Directed by Elliott Nugent
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Military humor in film, Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Danny Kaye, Dinah Shore, Dana Andrews, Knox Manning, Constance Dowling, Dorothy Patrick
Rating61%
Film musical, relatant les péripéties vécues par un garçon d'ascenseur un tantinet hypocondriaque, réussissant à obtenir un poste dans un hôpital espérant des consultations médicales plus faciles de cette façon et qui sympathise avec de charmantes infirmières. Las, la guerre avec les japonais le rattrape et il se retrouve propulsé dans le pacifique où il finit plus ou moins héroïquement, à la mode hollywoodienne de l'époque.
Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
, 1h52Directed by Charles Vidor
Origin USA
Genres Biography, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about writers, Films about magic and magicians, Seafaring films, Films about music and musicians, Transport films, Mermaids in film, Musical films, Children's films
Actors Danny Kaye, Farley Granger, Joseph Walsh, Philip Tonge, Erik Bruhn, John Qualen
Rating67%
In the 1830s, in the small Danish town of Odense, cobbler Hans Christian Andersen spends his day spinning fairy tales for the village children, teaching them lessons about pride, humility, love and growing up through his fanciful characters. One day, the stern schoolmaster, who believes Hans is wasting his pupils' precious time, implores the Burgomaster and councilmen to curtail the cobbler's habit of distracting the students with his storytelling, but even the adult citizens easily become a rapt audience for Hans' fables. Hans finally agrees to stop distracting the children and returns to his shop, where his teenage assistant, the orphan Peter, begs him to stop causing trouble. However, later that day Hans is drawn back to the schoolhouse to see the children. As he hears the schoolchildren drone mathematical phrases, he compares an inchworm's myopic measuring of beautiful blossoms to the schoolmaster's blindness to beauty and creativity. On yet another day, when the children do not arrive at the sound of the school bell, the schoolmaster deduces that Hans is again distracting his pupils. When the schoolmaster then demands that the Burgomaster and the councilmen choose between him and the cobbler, they decide that Hans must leave Odense. Peter, who has witnessed the verdict, returns to the shop and secretly tries to save his friend from the shame of being exiled by eagerly suggesting Hans travel to Copenhagen. After much prodding, Peter succeeds in convincing Hans to leave that afternoon by reminding him that he will be the envy of the town for having been the first to visit the famous city. Soon after Hans begins his journey, Peter joins him on the trail, bringing all the shop's tools to start their business anew.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
, 2h15Directed by Richard Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Romance
Themes Films about families, Feminist films, Films about music and musicians, Films about sexuality, Films about domestic violence, Musical films
Actors Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, William Atherton, Richard Kiley, Richard Gere, LeVar Burton
Rating66%
The film traces the sexual awakening of Theresa Dunn, a young teacher of Irish American descent who is searching for excitement outside her ordered life, in which she teaches deaf children. Suffering from severe body image issues following a childhood surgery that left a large scar on her back, Theresa finds first love with her older, married university professor, Martin, who ends the affair just before her graduation. The affair leaves Theresa feeling used, and she begins daydreaming about being reunited with her professor.
Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
, 1h44Directed by Norman Taurog, Roy Del Ruth
Origin USA
Genres Musical theatre, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter, Richard Carlson, Bob Crosby, Spring Byington
Rating67%
Lily Mars (Judy Garland) is a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She heads to Broadway hoping for stardom, but after a series of disappointments the best she can manage is an understudy job.
High Time (1960)
, 1h43Directed by Blake Edwards, Charles Brackett
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Bing Crosby, Fabian Forte, Tuesday Weld, Nicole Maurey, Richard Beymer, Patrick Adiarte
Rating59%
Wealthy restauranteur Harvey Howard (Bing Crosby), a self-made man, widower and owner of "Harvey Howard Smokehouses", decides to go back to college at the age of 51 and earn a bachelor's degree. He faces opposition from his grown snobbish children, as well as a generation gap between himself and his much-younger fellow students. The first day in school he finds that just convincing older students, faculty and the admin personnel is a humorous task. He enrolls and receives freshman rooming, and is up front about his determination to be "just another freshman". Being assigned a quad rooming arrangement, this sets the standard for the upcoming years. Dealing with the student press, the dorm adviser and making that first toast with sauerkraut juice to seal their bond to complete their four years together.
Rock Rock Rock! (1956)
, 1h25Origin USA
Genres Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Tuesday Weld, Connie Francis, Valerie Harper, David Winters, LaVern Baker, Jack Collins
Rating51%
Une adolescente, Dori Graham, n'arrive pas à convaincre son père de lui acheter une robe bustier, alors elle décide de rassembler elle-même l'argent à temps pour le bal.
The Inspector General (1949)
, 1h42Directed by Henry Koster
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Théâtre, Musical films, Films based on plays
Actors Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Elsa Lanchester, Alan Hale, Barbara Bates, Gene Lockhart
Rating66%
Georgi (Danny Kaye), an illiterate member of a wandering band of Gypsies led by Yakov (Walter Slezak) escapes from a travelling medicine show after he innocently lets slip that the elixir they're selling is a fraud. Tired and hungry, he wanders into the small town of Brodny and whilst trying to sample the contents of a horse's feedbag, he's arrested as a vagrant and sentenced to hang the next day by a corrupt police chief (Alan Hale Sr.), desperate to prove his efficiency.
On the Riviera (1951)
, 1h29Directed by Walter Lang
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical theatre, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Films based on plays, Children's films
Actors Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, Corinne Calvet, Marcel Dalio, Sig Ruman, Henri Letondal
Rating62%
The film follows Jack Martin as he is offered a large amount of money to impersonate his look alike, Henri Duran.
Heartbreak Hotel (1988)
, 1h37Directed by Chris Columbus
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about television, Musical films
Actors David Keith, Tuesday Weld, Charlie Schlatter, Angela Goethals, Chris Mulkey, Dana Barron
Rating56%
The story opens on a single mother and her two children, a teenage son and nine-year-old daughter, who run a boarding house. The mother is hurt in a car accident after her drunkard boyfriend crashed, so the son kidnaps her favorite singer, Elvis Presley, for her birthday, getting the owner of a local pizzeria who looks eerily like Elvis' mother to pose as his mother's ghost as a distraction. Elvis awakens, after being drugged by the boy, in the boarding house. Elvis and the boy don't get along at first. The boy has no respect for the 70's Elvis saying that he sold out to Vegas. Through the course of the movie, however, the boy and Elvis get to know each other and develop a friendship. Elvis even plays "Heartbreak Hotel" with the boy's band at a talent show.