Search - Penny Serenade on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1941 DVD Release: 06/30/1998 Format: DVD - Black and White Edition: Special Collection SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 57 mins Studio: Madacy Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Drama, Melodrama, Marriage Drama See Also: Penny Serenade [Special Edition], Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade - Cary Grant & Irene Dunne, Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade

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. Alas, 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. Sentimental in the extreme, Penny Serenade is also enormously effective, balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter. Only director George Stevens could have handled a scene with a copiously weeping Cary Grant without inducing discomfort or embarrassment in the audience. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1968 (though released by Columbia, the film was owned by Stevens' production firm), Penny Serenade has become almost as ubiquitous a cable-TV presence as It's a Wonderful Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irene Dunne - Julie Gardiner Adams
Cary Grant - Roger Adams
Beulah Bondi - Miss Oliver
Edgar Buchanan - Applejack
Ann Doran - Dotty

George Stevens tearjerker Penny Serenade comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Stereo. There are neither subtitles nor closed captions on this release. Supplemental materials include a biography of the performers, and a trivia quiz. This is an inexpensive release from Madacy that will be of interest to genre enthusiasts, but offers little for the average DVD consumer. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide