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Penny Serenade

6.6

1,662

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Original title

Penny Serenade

Year

1941

Running time

117 min.

Country

United States

Director

George Stevens

Screenwriter

Morrie Ryskind

Cast

Music

W. Franke Harling

Cinematography

Joseph Walker (B&W)

Producer

Columbia Pictures

Genre

Drama. Comedy | Melodrama. Adoption

Synopsis

While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While honeymooning in Japan, Julie and Roger are trapped in the 1923 earthquake, which results in her miscarriage and subsequent incapability to bear children. Upon their return to America, Roger becomes editor of a small-town newspaper, just scraping by financially. Despite their depleted resources, Julie and Roger want desperately to adopt a child. It seems hopeless until kindly adoption agency head Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) helps smooth their path. Alas, their happiness is once more short-lived: their new daughter, Trina (Eva Lee Kuney), succumbs to a sudden illness at the age of six. Reduced to hopelessness, Julie and Roger decide to dissolve their marriage, but Miss Oliver once more comes to the rescue. Sentimental in the extreme, Penny Serenade is also enormously effective, balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter. Only director George Stevens could have handled a scene with a copiously weeping Cary Grant without inducing discomfort or embarrassment in the audience. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1968 (though released by Columbia, the film was owned by Stevens' production firm), Penny Serenade has become almost as ubiquitous a cable-TV presence as It's a Wonderful Life. (Hal Erickson: All Movie Guide)

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Awards: 1941: Nominated for Oscar: Best Actor (Cary Grant)

1941: New York Film Critics Circle: Nominated for Best Actor (Cary Grant)

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Critics' reviews

"If you are prone to easy weeping, you might even take along a washtub."

Bosley Crowther: The New York Times
"George Stevens' direction and the excellence of the stars' playing make the film."

John C. Flinn Sr.: Variety
"If you have any tolerance for soap opera, this is one of the classics."

Dave Kehr: Chicago Reader

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