penny serenade

Cary Grant is most popularly known as the dashing and debonair sophisticate in movies like “To
Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest.” I find however that I enjoy Grant most in those early and
rare instances where he was playing against what he would eventually be locked into. Movies such
as “Bringing Up Baby” and “Gunga Din” are the flicks I like Grant in best. One of his best and most
powerful performances was in an earlier film such as these called “Penny Serenade.”

Grant plays a smalltime journalist who falls in love with Irene Dunne, an employee at a record
store. They court for a time and then fall in love. They marry and soon move to Japan where
Grant gets a correspondent job. He’s not the most responsible guy with money and they have their
differences. Dunne becomes pregnant, but loses the baby in a tragic accident and her ability to
have children. They return to the states and Grant tries to start his own weekly newspaper. Dunne
still wants a child and they adopt a little girl, but they know that the adoption agency is watching
closely. If anything should go wrong financially or socially, they could lose their second child.

The film is a series of flashbacks through Dunne’s memory as she plays various records, the songs
of which send her back to different events in her life with Grant. This episodic flavor is interesting,
but can at times be somewhat repetitive and surreal.

What really brings this movie to the forefront of my mind are the excellent performances by Grant
and Dunne. Rarely are two performers so in synch. Dunne throws herself into this tough role of
the wife and wannabe mother with grace and enthusiasm, but never to the point of theatricality,
although it could easily have fallen in that way.

Grant, in a role far against his normal fare, steals the movie from everyone in a gut-wrenching and
moving portrayal of a man who discovers and embraces responsibility in the eyes of a child he
initially doesn’t want and then sacrifices his dignity for in a desperate bid to keep. Yes, Grant has
been funnier, and he’s certainly been more suave and charming, but never has he been so
emotionally profound and sublimely human.

Grant is a father compelled to act in ways beyond mere instinct for a child he once thought he'd
never have feelings for. The angst on his face, the humanity in his voice and the vulnerability are
beyond striking. Grant shows his true colors as an elite thespian.

That is the real gift of “Penny Serenade.” It’s a story perfectly told by filmmaking legend, George
Stevens, in an honest and unapologetic fashion.