PENNY SERENADE

 "PENNY SERENADE" (1941)

SYNOPSIS: "Since marrying Roger Adams, Julie has wanted to start a family. An accident while she's visiting Japan causes a miscarriage and makes Julie incapable of having children. After they adopt a little girl, Trina, Roger's small newspaper folds, and the couple has to fight in court to keep her. Even though they succeed, another tragedy strikes out of nowhere. The Adams' marriage looks headed for divorce, unless something brings them close again."

STARRING: Cary Grant, Irene Dunn, Eva Lee Kuney, Edgar Buchanan, Beulah Bondi, Ann Doran, Leonard Willey, Jane Biffle, Wallis Clark, Walter Soderling and Baby Biffle.

SCREENPLAY: Morrie Ryskind; Based on "Penny Serenade" (1940 McCall's story) by Martha Cheavens.

DIRECTOR: George Stevens

REVIEWS & MISC.:

Variety commended both the direction and the acting for lifting the script out of maudlin melodrama. Describing the plot elements as "tenderness, heart-throb, comedy and good, old-fashioned, gulping tears", the review notes: "Half a dozen times the yarn approaches the saccharine, only to be turned back into sound, human comedy-drama".

A Time review also lauded Stevens' direction, stating: "Grant and Dunne cannot overcome the ten-little-fingers-and-ten-little-toes plot ... it is too often a moving picture which does not move. Skillful direction saves it from turning maudlin".

Radio Times said that Grant "gives a lesson in screen acting and was rightly Oscar-nominated for a superb, subtly-shaded portrayal that keeps sentimentality at bay".

Grant considered his role in Penny Serenade as his best performance.

Dunne often remarked that this was her favorite film "because it reminded her of her own adopted daughter."