Rating: NR
Genre:
Musical
Release Date: 12/13/2005
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1/DD5.1
Run Time: 117 Minutes
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Paramount
The Five Pennies is the life story of influential jazz cornetist
Red Nichols, played here by a remarkably straight-faced
Danny Kaye. The somewhat romanticized screenplay chronicles
Nichols' rise from obscurity, annotates the many future bandleaders who would play with
Nichols' "Five Pennies," and details his self-destructive streak and (seeming) inability to conform to changing musical tastes. Weaving in and out of the main story is a sentimental subplot concerning
Nichols' physically impaired daughter
Dorothy, played by
Susan Gordon as a child and by
Tuesday Weld (in her movie debut) as a young woman.
Nichols's long-suffering wife is portrayed by
Barbara Bel Geddes. The storyline occasionally lapses into sappiness and the ending is almost impossibly lachrymose, but the musical highlights save the day. Especially memorable is
Danny Kaye's duet with
Louis Armstrong. Among the real-life musicians who grace the supporting cast of
The Five Pennies are
Bob Crosby,
Ray Anthony,
Shelly Manne, and, as
Jimmy Dorsey,
Bobby Troup.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
