| Penny Serenade is a 1941 film melodrama starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan. It was directed by George Stevens and written by Martha Cheavens and Morrie Ryskind. It depicts the story of a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child. Grant was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Irene Dunne ... Julie Gardiner Adams Cary Grant ... Roger Adams Beulah Bondi ... Miss Oliver Edgar Buchanan ... Applejack Carney Ann Doran ... Dotty 'Dot' Eva Lee Kuney ... Trina (6 years old) Leonard Willey ... Doctor Hartley Wallis Clark ... Judge Walter Soderling ... Billings Baby Biffle ... Trina (1 year old) The part of Trina was played by two pairs of identical twins at different ages. Time said "Grant and Dunne cannot overcome the ten-little-fingers-and-ten-little-toes plot. Written by scripter Morrie Ryskind, produced and directed by George Stevens (Alice Adams), it is too often a moving picture which does not move. Skillful direction saves it from turning maudlin."[2] Bosley Crowther, in a somewhat ambivalent review, concludes "some very credible acting on the part of Mr. Grant and Miss Dunne is responsible in the main for the infectious quality of the film. Edgar Buchanan, too, gives an excellent performance as a good-old-Charlie friend, and Beulah Bondi is sensible as an orphanage matron. Heart-warming is the word for both of them. As a matter of fact, the whole picture deliberately ... |
