Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Cary Grant was probably the greatest comic actor in Hollywood history. He starred in comedies spanning four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s. But aside from a belated honorary Oscar received in 1970, he only received two nominations for Best Actor, never winning. Both films were dramas, Penny Serenade (1941) and None But the Lonely Heart (1944).

Grant's comic skills were certainly appreciated by the millions who flocked to theaters to see his films. But you can be sure that it was not his big comic scene in Penny Serenade, which has him frantically searching for a lost baby, that garnered the Oscar nod. Instead, it was his passionate speech to a judge, pleading that his year-old adopted daughter not be taken away despite his chronic unemployment.

The latter scene is more characteristic of Penny Serenade, a consummate romantic tearjerker directed by George Stevens. Stevens' skill with melodramatic 'soap opera' plots would later show in A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956). Stevens had worked with Grant before, in Gunga Din (1939), and would direct him in a heavily Oscar-nominated success the following year, The Talk of the Town (1942).

The movie is composed of a series of flashbacks, several with surprisingly long takes. A scene in which Irene Dunne learns to bathe her infant would seem interminable, if it were not so charming nor as well done. The flashbacks are framed by a stack of old RCA Victor 78 RPM records, played by Dunne as she reminisces about her troubled marriage with Grant.

As in another Cary Grant film from 1941, Suspicion, he plays a character whose sunny optimism belies a risk-taking and spendthrift nature. Dunne had earlier been in two comedies with Grant, the classic The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favorite Wife (1940), but in Penny Serenade her scenes are mostly dramatic. Dunne was a seemingly ageless beauty who had leading roles into her late forties, radiating grace and dignity even in comedies.

Penny Serenade first saw theaters in April 1941, about eight months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Several early scenes in the movie take place in Japan, although they were undoubtedly filmed on a Hollywood backlot. The benign depiction of the Japanese people, and the appreciation for their ancient cultural traditions, are in stark contrast to how the Japanese would soon be portrayed in American films.

At 120 minutes, the film runs a bit long, and various tragedies that befall our leads are milked for all the drama that can be drained from them. But dry your eyes; we suspect all along that a production code happy ending is in store. (67/100)


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8