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Penny Serenade (1941)

Director:
George Stevens
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Penny Serenade
RUNNING TIME
119 minutes
Producer:
George Stevens
Screenwriters:
Morrie Ryskind


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Julie Gardiner Irene Dunne
Roger Adams Cary Grant
Miss Oliver Beulah Bondi
Applejack Edgar Buchanan

 

Review

Sentimental tearjerker about a young couple's struggles with adopting a child after losing their own in pregnancy. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant may look like an unlikely couple, but they play well off of each other in their third film together, and their emotionally resonant performances are the main reason that Penny Serenade almost feels valid in its blatant attack on our feelings. George Stevens' (later of A Place in the Sun, Shane and Giant) direction is marred by shortcuts and a not too effective flashback-based narrative structure, but the film's depiction of the era's adoption system remains interesting today – helped by a devoted supporting performance by Beulah Bondi as the administrator.

Copyright © 11.01.2018 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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