Penny Serenade Reviews

Cary Grant is at his most charming and gives a very amusing and, at times, very very touching performance as a new dad. When he gives his heart-rending speech to the child custody judge and begs to keep his adopted baby girl, it brings a lump to my throat every time I see it. Irene Dunne was a classy lady in anything she did, and can be as quietly funny as she can be dramatic, as she demonstrated in this film. She was a great "straight-man," too, to Cary Grant's more animated role. I truly love this film.

I’ve said it once, and I’m sure I’ll say it a hundred more times: star power can make or break a film. Penny Serenade isn’t a bad film, or even a bad story. In fact, a quiet and absorbing drama could have been made using this story, this director and these actors. But somewhere along the way, Penny Serenade decided it wanted a huge dollop of unnecessary schmaltz added on top, and that is what keeps it from achieving true greatness.

Cary Grant and Irene Dunne need only exist and say their lines for the film to justify its existence, even when it takes overtly manipulative emotional turns. Grant in particular elevates several scenes into heartbreaking tragedy by toning down his romantic leading man charisma and showing us the more damaged human being residing beneath the idealized star. His third-act monolog is a juicy piece of work, detailing emotions and a sense of urgency that we rarely see from him. It’s a performance worthy of an Oscar, and he was nominated but lost to Gary Cooper in Sergeant York.

The plot follows a couple who marries, and has trouble conceiving a child. Attempts at adoption and tensions in their married life factor into the twists and turns in major ways, and a simple kitchen-sink drama could have been effectively made. Instead, they chose to add a wrap-around structure that sees Dunne listening to various records and remembering back to the past events that lead to the trial separation that they’re currently in. This flashback structure is unneeded and proves more distracting than anything, continually absorbing us out of the story to give us shots of Dunne wistfully changing LP sides or switching out records.

Another problem is that Penny Serenade succumbs to easily moralizing. The problems in their home lives can be smoothed over and repaired once they become a nuclear family, the child may be adopted, but it’s still a happy little family. All issues, no matter how serious or grave, can be magically fixed by heteronormativity. Yet Penny Serenade is still a solidly constructed movie. There’s charming, and often brilliant, acting from the two leads, and George Stevens’ direction is assured and keeps the film from giving into too much bathos, and the story is engaging.