THE FIVE PENNIES

US, 1959, 117 Minutes, Colour.
Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Louis Armstrong, Bob Crosby, Tuesday Weld.
Directed by Melville Shavelson.

The Five Pennies is a Danny Kaye vehicle. It is for those who enjoy jazz as it is the biography of Red Nichols. The music of Louis Armstrong also features. Danny Kaye had had great success in the late 40s and during the 50s with such films as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in the 40s and Knock on Wood and The Court Jester in the 50s. In the late 50s he became slightly more serious with his comedy as in Me and The Colonel. In the following year he made this biography. His style is rather subdued but nonetheless enjoyable. Tuesday Weld appears in one of her earliest films. Direction is by Melville Shavelson who has written and directed quite a number of films designed for wide family audiences e.g. Houseboat in the 50s and Mixed Company and Yours, Mine and ours in the 60s and 70s. He also wrote a book, How to Make a Jewish Movie, with his experiences of making the Israel liberation epic, Cast a Giant Shadow.

1. How entertaining a film was this? As a musical, biography, Danny Kaye film? which predominated? why?

2. Comment on the film's success as a musical: the jazz music, the brass music and its presentation, the atmosphere of nightclubs and concerts? The nostalgia for the music of the early 20th century?

3. Comment on the film's success as biography: did it deal with real people? How realistic was its presentation? Characters, personalities, problems? Did it have too much of a light and comic touch for real depth? The atmosphere of the times: the music and style of the 20s, 30s and war, the war effort of the 40s? The inter-relation of times and characters?

4. Was Red Nicholls an interesting and attractive character? The impact of his first arrival, his ambitions, talent and skill? His shy personality and relation to Bobbie? The drink (prohibition)? His ability to clown and to amuse? The suddenness of the marriage - did he really love Bobbie? The first night, his taunting of will Paradise? His pre-occupation with himself and ambitions? His enjoyment of his work? The satire on the radio advertisements? The importance of Dorothy in the marriage? How did Red change character-with success? The absences from home? His ignoring of Dorothy's needs? His over-response to her illness? To the doctors? The significance of dropping his instrument in San Francisco Bay? His work with the crippled children, his encouraging of Dorothy and starting her on the road to health? Doing penance for her? The humiliation of his work during the war? The ravages of time and growing older? His refusal to start again? The ultimate happiness that he achieved? How interesting a man was he? How much did he suffer?

5. Was Bobbie an attractive character: as a support, as a wife, her love and support for Red.. as a mother, her suffering and standing by husband and daughter? Her vindication at the end?

6. The importance of Dorothy in the film - the sequences of her birth, life with the Five Pennies? Her friendship with her father, her loneliness and reaction to going to boarding school. The boarding school sequences and the swinging in the rain? Her illness and her spite against her father? Her growing up, challenge to her illness, what motivated her each time? Her forgetting what had happened and her father's sacrifice, her saying she was grateful, her joining her mother in pushing him to success? The significance of the dance at the end? Audience response to this?

7. The support from Tony and other friends of Red?

8. The importance for the film of having Louis Armstrong and others as backing to Red Nicholls.

9. How successful then was the film as entertainment, humour and warmth, humanity? How encouraging was its message about human life and its uplift?