Pennies from Heaven - 16mm Print

(Norman Z. McLeod, US 1936, 81 min., 16mm)

Ex-con Larry Poole (Bing Crosby) is on a mission: he has made a promise to a dying man to deliver a letter to the Smith family in New Jersey. The family, orphaned Patsy (Edith Fellows) and her grandfather (Donald Meek), are barely getting by, and concerned social worker Susan Sprague (Madge Evans) wants to place Patsy in an orphanage. In order to raise the money to keep Patsy at home, Larry puts on a show in a reputed haunted house, with disastrous, and hilarious, results. The film features not only the title song, sung by Crosby, but also four other tunes penned by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke.