MM21: Sables From Heaven: Written by Dennis Potter feat. Jools Duane (Patreon)

This week we spotlight our first screenwriter with two films written by Dennis Potter: 1983’s Gorky Park (d. Michael Apted) and 1981’s Pennies from Heaven (d. Herbert Ross). Gorky Park is a police investigation thriller set in Soviet Russia concerning a gruesome murder involving a sable smuggling ring, and Pennies from Heaven features Steve Martin in one of his few dramatic roles as a depression era sheet music salesmen who escapes his dreary life through elaborate musical fantasies and a love affair with Bernadette Peters as an innocent schoolteacher. While wildly different in subject and tone, they illustrate Potter’s range and depth as a writer over his prolific career.