Penny Serenade (1941)

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.