SnoopyStyle Julie (Irene Dunne) is leaving her husband Roger Adams (Cary Grant). Her friend Applejack Carney (Edgar Buchanan) tries to help. She plays some records which reminds her of their happier days. Roger first meets Julie as a sales clerk in a record store. Applejack warns her about dating newspaper man Roger. The newspaper takes him to Japan and he asks her to marry. An earthquake in Japan causes Julie to miscarry. She can't have children anymore. Roger's small newspaper is struggling and money is tight. They adopt a little girl but the struggle continues and then the girl suddenly dies.This movie lacks a drive to move the story at the beginning. The first section is pedestrian and slow. Dunne and Grant are basically 40 year olds doing the young love story. They are rather bland and Grant isn't allowed much comedic leeway. The earthquake shakes things up a bit literally. The story stops being so bland. As adoptive parents, they show a bit more color. Roger is reluctant and Julie is eager. They start to have better chemistry. They get to do some fun bits like the alarm clock. The emotional content is also heightened. However the final act is rushed. The audience needs time to process the death. The letters are also hard to read. The death occurring off-scene is somewhat expected for the time. However it does take away the big cinematic move of the parents finding their dead child. It's better to take out most of the courtship. That's not the interesting part of the story.

Edgar Soberon Torchia RCA Victor could have subsidized this Columbia release. It looks as if by 1941 the only recording company in business was RCA, for every single disc Irene Dunne plays for almost two hours, during this over sentimental account of a couple searching for a child, is on that label. George Stevens' film starts promisingly but becomes dull with its structure device (every time Dunne plays a record, she remembers a stage of her married life), and very silly with cute babies and smiling little girls, that the whole product loses impact. Dunne and Cary Grant are good as usual, but Grant has more opportunity to elaborate a performance, and Dunne has little opportunity to display her winning charm; while Beulah Bondi and Edgar Kennedy provide excellent support in key roles. These four performances make the film somehow worthwhile, but for me that was just it.

s-varian This was a phenomenal movie. I loved the way they portrayed the struggles of a couple who are raising their first child. George Stevens does a wonderful job directing this. If any other director tried to do what he did, the film would be a miserable tear jerker. It's unfortunate how realistic this movie really was, but yet it ends happily which is exactly how people needed their movies to end in the 40s. George Stevens really attempted to compose this film with a lot of respect to the narrative. The story here was more important than the actual film making. There are many flaws and cheap screw ups, but that's not something the audience is looking for. It's an emotional, happy, drama, and it doesn't matter how bad the movie is made quality wise. It was made badly though, it just had some flaws.

kevin_m_sullivan Cary Grant is one of my favorite actors of the twentieth century, and thus, it is difficult to give this film a bad review. It is not that it was poorly made or the actors were inadequate, but I think the storyline used nostalgic sentiment as a sort of crutch to move along, and that often happened quite slowly. The use of flashback is well done, but seemingly overplayed. The photography in the film was not really above-average, but I also don't have any complaints with it. I suppose if nothing else, Penny Serenade is a perfect example of how pace and editing can make or break a movie, and for me, it didn't quite make it.