The
Five Pennies
Picture: B
Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B+
While you probably won’t find The Five Pennies at
the top of too many ‘top’ lists Paramount’s DVD issue of the film makes for a
quick rediscovery of a long forgotten film.
This fairly sentimental, yet intriguing story is the biography or Red
Nichols (Danny Kaye), who was at one time a famed Dixieland trumpeter. The basic premise here is that Nichols was
mostly known for being both a great musician, but also how he gave up music for
his devotion to family. The film is a
must for Big Band fans and will most likely appeal to the entire family. Some other key moments in the film include
Louis Armstrong and the title of the film comes from the name of Nichol’s band,
which consisted of big names like none other than Glenn Miller.
Equally impressive to the film itself is Paramount’s
presentation of the film for DVD. The
main reason is the stellar picture giving the 1.85 X 1 anamorphic presentation
of the VistaVision-originated print some amazing life again. This is by far the best the film has looked
for home viewing and demonstrates some of the best color for a VistaVision film
on DVD to date! Reds are natural and
strong, while blacks are deep and concentrated. The entire color palette reminds me of some of the strong color
films like those by Douglas Sirk around this same time period.
Paramount made a wise decision in turning this DVD into a
Dolby 5.1 experience rather than mono or stereo. The biggest advantage in this case is that since the film rests
heavily on music that 5.1 is the only way to experience that fully. Danny Kaye did a great job pretending to
play the parts, but Red Nichol’s actually provided all the music performance
playing for the film, giving it some real authenticity. While extras would have been nice this is
one of the great, yet few times in DVD land that we can genuinely say that this
is both a good film and presentation that will help make this film more
accessible and sought after, especially with the light price tag!
- Nate Goss
