Synopsis
Penny Serenade -- Digitally Remastered. "Remember the tune they were singing the night we fell in love?" Penny Serenade is a 1941 melodrama directed by George Stevens (Swing Time, Gunga Din) starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi and Edgar Buchanan. It tells the story of a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage together and raise a child. Grant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While honeymooning in Japan, Julie and Roger are trapped in the 1923 earthquake which results in her miscarriage and subsequent incapability to bear children. Upon their return to America, Roger becomes editor of a small-town newspaper, just scraping by financially. Despite their depleted resources, Julie and Roger want desperately to adopt a child. It seems hopeless until kindly adoption agency head Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) helps smooth their path. Their happiness is once more short-lived: their new daughter, Trina (Eva Lee Kuney), succumbs to a sudden illness at the age of six. Reduced to hopelessness, Julie and Roger decide to dissolve their marriage but Miss Oliver once more comes to the rescue. Balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter, Penny Serenade is an enormously effective romantic drama full of both unexpected sadness and unexpected joy. "This 'Penny Serenade' is the kind of music a man plays on a woman's heart strings."