The Five Pennies
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Initial DVD release December 13, 2005 Country United States | 7.3/10 IMDb Genre Biography, Drama, Music Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1959 (1959) Writer Jack Rose (screenplay), Melville Shavelson (screenplay), Robert Smith (story), Red Nichols (suggested by the life of) Cast (Ernest Loring Nichols), (Wila Stutsman), (Himself), (Tony Valani), (Wil Paradise), (Artie Schutt) Similar movies The Jazz Singer (1952) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The five pennies trailer
The Five Pennies is a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Loring Red Nichols. Other cast members include Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Bobby Troup, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld. The film was directed by Melville Shavelson.
Contents
The film received four Oscar nominations: Best Musical Scoring (Leith Stevens), Best Original Song (Sylvia Fine—Danny Kaye's wife), 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.
Plot
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.
As a teenager, Dorothy (Tuesday Weld) 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.
Cast
References
The Five Pennies WikipediaThe Five Pennies IMDbThe Five Pennies themoviedb.org