“Kaye’s Talents Get Workout in Movie”

Big Spring Daily Herald – Aug. 30, 1959

After 15 years of film-making, Danny Kaye has found a happy middle ground between comedy and drama by playing both in “The Five Pennies,” Sunday and Monday at the Ritz Theatre.

Danny has an opportunity to combine the serious and the humorous—plus the musical facets of his talent in a way to make this a memorable motion picture.

“The Five Pennies” also stars Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, and jazz pianist-leader Bobby Troup. It tells the dramatic, personal story of famed cornetist “Red” Nichols, and it recreates the jazz music popularized by his band, The Five Pennies.

The script, by Director Melville Shavelson and Producer Jack Rose, gives Kaye the opportunity for drama when tragedy strikes his family; to sing tricky lyrics as only he can; and to do his inimitable dance and comic routines.

“Five years ago,” the actor declared, “I would not have departed from the old, tested and proved straight comedy formula. But it seems to me that an actor has to grow up as well as old, and that in doing so his ambitions, goals and standards must change. No performer could be happy doing the same thing year after year. I can’t be strictly a madcap in every picture. I’m not a madcap at heart, really. I have my moods. If I tried to keep up the comedy pace on and off the screen, I’d be a nervous wreck, in addition to which I think my fans would grow tired of me.”

Twenty-five songs are featured in “The Five Pennies,” five new ones and 20 famous old jazz tunes.

Sylvia Fine (Mrs. Kaye) contributed four of the five new songs, especially tailored to fit Danny’s unique style: “The Five Pennies,” “Lullaby in Ragtime,” “Goodnight—Sleep Tight,” and “Follow the Leader.”

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