Penny Serenade (1941)

Penny Serenade is an American romantic film drama first released in 1941, directed by George Stevens.  The film stars Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan and Ann Doran.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Julie Gardiner has decided to leave her husband.  As she sorts through her old record collection she remembers their life together and the tragic events that have led to their inevitable separation.  She met Roger Adams, an ambitious young journalist, when he walked into the record shop where she once worked.   After a whirlwind romance, they marry and move to Tokyo, where Roger has found work on a newspaper.  When Roger comes into a small inheritance they decide to return to the United States, but before  they leave they are caught up in an earthquake which causes Julie to have a miscarriage.  Unable to have any children of her own, Julie decides to adopt, but the adoption agency has strict rules, one of which is that the parents must have a reasonable income.  Since he took over an ailing newspaper, Roger has made no money but he is determined to make a living for his family.  Miss Oliver, an employee of the adoption agency, looks favourably on Julie and Roger and allows them to take charge of a five-week old baby girl.  The new arrival changes the lives of the couple and they could hardly be happier.  But when the time comes for them to apply for adoption Roger still doesn’t have an income and, according to the rules, the child must be returned to the orphanage...

Having made audiences howl with hysterics in the premier screwball comedy The Awful Truth (1937), the winning couple of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are brought back together to make the same audiences weep buckets with this no-holds-barred tear jerker.  The film is about as contrived as it is possible for a piece of fiction to be and exploits every possible device in the tear-maker’s armoury to full lachrymosal effect, and yet it is crafted with such sincerity and charm that you cannot help falling for it.

Hollywood weepies are often derided and looked down on (even dismissed as women’s pictures) but, if they are well scripted, well directed and well acted, they can be highly effective and provide a genuinely rewarding experience for the spectator.  Penny Serenade is an example of such a film which, despite its obvious sentimentality and plot contrivances, engages the emotions and provokes tears, without giving you the feeling that you are being manipulated.

George Stevens should receive his share of the credit for the film’s slick and subtle direction, but the greater part of the film’s impact and emotional truth derives from the well-judged performances from Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.  Grant is renowned for making us laugh, but here he is just as effective at making us cry, and we end up loving him all the more for it.  This was only one of two roles for which he earned an Oscar nomination – the other being None But the Lonely Heart (1944).  If you are feeling hopelessly melancholic and want a good wholesome cry, there is probably no better therapy than Penny Serenade.  Just make sure you have a well-stocked box of Kleenex beside you when you watch it.

© James Travers 2009

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