Millionnaire de cinq sous

This is an odd one.

I look back on 'The Five Pennies' in two parts. The first half of the film is uninteresting and slow, but once the story gets set and the second half comes to fruition it turns into something rather touching - which I didn't expect at all. By the end, I felt truly attached to the characters and their story - but that's weird, given how I didn't enjoy the early stages.

Danny Kaye is very good in the lead role of Red, especially towards the end. Susan Gordon (Dorothy, as a kid) impressed me a bunch, she has one fantastic poker scene with Kaye. Barbara Bel Geddes, meanwhile, plays the role of Willa well.

The film, a loose biopic on the real Red Nichols, is music-heavy. Early on I think that affects things from a film point of view, but you can at least tell the cast - particularly Kaye and Louis Armstrong (as himself) - are having a fun time.

Overall, I think it's lovely - but I can't recall a film that's split my feelings from start-to-finish as much as this did.

Danny Kaye is known for his comic roles; for his laughter, his singing, his dancing, his light-hearted humor. But this movie presents a different Danny Kaye - serious, brooding, consumed with guilt, confronted by really serious problems - and here Danny Kaye shines. This movie is proof that if he had to, Danny Kaye could have been one of the greatest dramatic actors in the history of motion pictures. There is no question about that. In this movie, Kaye puts aside the clowning to play a subdued, moody and introspective character who nevertheless is still likable and worthy of attention. And it works! In the movie he wins over the audience, he wins over his family, he wins over his friends. And who can ever forget the scene with Louis Armstrong? Kaye's character overcomes all obstacles to triumph and to be loved. Only a highly skilled and sensitive actor could have done the job, and in this movie Danny Kaye proved that he had the requisite qualities to transform what could have been little more than a sudsy soap opera into a powerful statement about a man who, along with his family, not only survives but sets an example for others. For this reason, this movie is a powerful and compelling work of art.

This little gem can be appreciated on two levels. Non-jazz fans who have never heard of Red Nichols will find a fine little "family movie," which despite its 192O's-speakeasy milieu offers up nothing seamier than the observation by Red's wife, Bobbi (Barbara Bel Geddes in a performance of remarkable warmth) that their daughter has come to believe that "breakfast is a cup of coffee and an aspirin." The story of the daughter's attack of polio and her fight to walk again is unflinching and the first-time viewer should pack sufficient Kleenex. Fans of Danny Kaye will find plenty of examples of his trademark clowning, but they'll also find moments of wonderful dramatic and introspective acting.

The most remarkable scene in the movie: a guilty Nichols/Kaye, feeling that his daughter's polio is the direct result of his neglect of her in favor of jazz, promises God that if she survives, he will give up music and devote himself to her care. Sound hokey? Could have been. But the scene where Kaye throws his cornet into the river is absolutely spine-chilling. He stops, tenderly caressing the cornet keys, allowing the happy memories to pass wistfully over his features...then coldly, abruptly, tosses the instrument into the waters below. When Kaye straightens up, he seems to have aged twenty years and gained fifty pounds...a remarkable scene.

The second level on which the film can be appreciated: an introduction to a wonderful musician. Like "The Glenn Miller Story" and "The Benny Goodman Story," "The Five Pennies" makes little attempt to give an accurate portrayal of its subject. Ernest Loring Nichols, from all accounts, was a cool, calculating businessman, nothing like the madcap, freewheeling character played by Danny Kaye. As a cornetist he stood willingly in the shadow of his idol Bix Beiderbecke, whose playing style he strove (with some success) to duplicate. Despite the fact that Bix was the major personal and professional influence on Red, he is mentioned only once, toward the end of the film: "(in those early days) there was Louis (Armstrong), Bix and me--and that was it!"

Biographical inaccuracies aside, the pure tone of the real Nichols' cornet shines through brilliantly, and reaches out to grab the ear of the traditional jazz fan--at least it did mine. When I first saw the film in '81, I was a Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman fan, and knew Nichols only as a bandleader they had played with early on. The movie was a springboard, leading me to search out the albums, and the real biographical details, of the very real Red Nichols.

Incidentally, the film benefited the by-then largely forgotten Nichols greatly: just as the late-5O's dixieland-revival was gathering steam, he landed a Columbia contract, and recorded some wonderful stereo albums of his past hits--and of the music specially written for the film by Silvia Fine (Mrs. Danny Kaye). Though he died in '65 (while in Vegas to play a gig), his music lives on through these wonderful albums --and through the soundtrack on Decca, featuring not only Nichols but Louis Armstrong. Their duets, through placed in fictionalized scenes, stand as a legitimate audio document of two of the earliest and most influential cornetist/trumpeters in history playing together--in glorious, analog stereo. I'll join the others who've commented on this film in wishing that this wonderful soundtrack would be released on CD. (Not outside the realm of possibility: the soundtrack of "Pete Kelly's Blues, from the same time period, has just appeared on CD...so who knows?)

For both traditional jazz fans, and those who appreciate wholesomely uplifting (but NOT goody-goody) film, this movie is a treasure.

I'm 15 years old and when I saw this movie for the first time about a year ago, I feel in love with it. It is the perfect combo of comedy, romance, and drama. I am a writer and I always add a little of all of those emotions into my stories because it makes it more believeable and realistic as well as more touching. I am now a Danny Kaye fan. He is a wonderful actor and singer. Whenever I see him on while flipping the channels, I will stop and watch. I am also now a fan of classic films of the 1930s and beyond.

This is the sentimental biography of the life of Ernest Loring (Red) Nichols, a trumpeter/band leader during the 1930's. Danny Kaye does a great job playing Red and Barbara Belgeddes plays his wife, Bobbie. Tuesday Weld plays his daughter, Dorothy. The movie follows Red through his career as a great jazz trumpeter who gives up music for family. A must see for Danny Kaye and Big Band fans. Some of the members of Red's "Five Pennies", as his band was known, were Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey. Louis Armstrong puts on a stellar musical performance as himself. Red Nichols does the trumpet solos. Great music, good family viewing.