The Five Pennies Reviews
Comments about Danny are highlighted in yellow.
“Danny Kaye Stars In Warner’s Fine ‘Five Pennies’”
Life Story Of Bandman ‘Red’ Nichols
Replete With Music, Comedy, Drama
The Pittsburgh Press – Aug. 11, 1959
By: Henry Ward
It is a genuine pleasure to write nice things about a fine movie such
as “The Five Pennies” at the Warner Theater.
Comedy and drama, music and
acting of the best have been wrapped up with care and finesse in this extraordinary
biography of Loring “Red” Nichols, cornetist supreme and one of the great bandmen
of all time.
Head and shoulders above the flood of life-
The movie takes its title from the Nichols band, whose
membership once included such jazz greats as Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Dave Tough
and Arthur Schutt.
Wonderful mirth and tender pathos have been superbly
blended in this well-
All of these sparkling attributes present a
gem of a setting for the top drawer performances of the
The script moves smoothly in tracing the story of “Red” Nichols from
the time he comes out of obscurity with his silver horn until he reaches the peak
of his profession only to have his career nipped at its zenith when his daughter
is stricken with polio.
Blaming himself for his daughter’s affliction,
“Red” tosses his beloved cornet from the Golden Gate Bridge and abandons his band
to become a family man with a menial job in a shipyard. But wife and daughter alike
with the aid of old cronies put “Red” on the comeback trail.
“The Five
Pennies” molds the high spots and the low of Nichols’ career deftly with just the
right touch of humanness, wit and pathos.
Linking the chapters are a series
of remarkable band sequences bring back such all-
But “The Five Pennies” is far more than just a cavalcade of music.
It
presents Kaye with every opportunity to display his remarkable talents as one of
the nation’s best showmen. He sings, he clowns, he dances, he handles a coronet with
amazing and convincing dexterity. And he has tremendous appeal in some of the more
solemn moments. To this reviewer’s point of view it is the best Danny Kaye has done
in the movies.
Barbara Bel Geddes exudes naturalness and charm as the
girl in the band who marries its leader and sticks by him through sunshine and darkness.
Susan Gordon is a little heartbreaker as the child who loves to sing and dance, but
is cut down by polio and as the grown up Dorothy Nichols, Tuesday Weld is equally
charming.
Louis Armstrong, ol’ “Satchmo,” has a field day with his role of portraying
himself and when he cuts loose with “Bill Bailey” and “duets” with Kaye in a glorious
arrangement of “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic,”
the movie audience is moved to justifiable and spontaneous applause. You just can’t
hear a performance like this and not do something about it.
There’s a
whale of a supporting cast, too, with Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony, Harry Guardino, Ray
Daly and Valerie Allen.
Kaye’s wife in real life, Sylvia Fine, has contributed
to the musical side with the words and music “The Five Pennies,” “Lullaby in Ragtime”
and other tunes.
There’s a heap of credit due to Director Melville Shavelson
and Producer Jack Rose, who with Shavelson wrote the screenplay.
By all means see “The Five Pennies.” You’ll feel like dancing and you’ll feel like crying a bit and probably will—but you’ll be smiling through your tears. It’s a grand show.